Matt Gentry | Roanoke Times

Nikki Younce, 8, a third-grader at Elliston Lafayette Elementary School, goes through the lunch line Tuesday. She chose a chef salad, sliced carrots and chocolate milk. Some of the other items offered to pupils that day included sliced apples, sliced pears, tossed salads, sweet potato cookies, and orange and apple juices.

On Friday afternoon, 12-year-old Dane Leehman bounded in from school and like so many kids, made a straight shot for the fridge.

But unlike many other kids, he didn't pull out Ho Hos and soda.

"Mom, where are the apples?" he asked Sandy Toensing.

"In the crisper," she answered.

To keep her family healthy, Toensing keeps fresh fruit for snacks, cooks consciously and gets them all exercising.

Dane is in fine shape, but she's still concerned about his health and wellness at school.

As a dietetics student at Radford University, she knows that schools can offer some unhealthy choices, such as vending machines with junk food, candy bar fundraisers and food as rewards. She worries about the rising rate of childhood obesity.

Toensing and about 30 others with similar concerns joined together last year to create the Montgomery County Coalition for Healthy Schools.

The group's goal is to generally promote wellness in schools and be a resource for Montgomery County Schools as it crafts a federally mandated wellness policy.

The policy will guide the physical activity, nutrition and nutrition education for staff and students for years to come.

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 requires each school district to draft a wellness policy by this summer. Policies may address a host of issues, such as integrating nutrition education and physical activity into Standard of Learning requirements, offering healthy choices in vending machines, and increasing fresh vegetables and fruit.

The legislation is meant to address troubling trends in children's health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of overweight children has doubled in the past 20 years from 7 percent in 1980 to 16 percent in 2002. The rate among adolescents tripled. Experts say that overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults, leaving them at greater risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and cancer.

The Montgomery County Schools Health Advisory Board has three subcommittees made up of teachers, administrators, health professionals, parents and members of Toensing's group who have been working on the policy since fall.

Susan Miller, a health and exercise education instructor at Radford University, said her committee brainstormed and talked about reinstating a staff wellness initiative that was successful in the 1980s.

They also talked about how children will pick healthy food over junk food, if there is a choice.

The committees will come together Tuesday to report their progress. A draft of the policy will be presented to the school board in mid-May. It must be approved by the school board before it becomes policy.

Miller said the federal mandate is unfunded, and it will be up to the school board to pay for the policy.

Denise Boyle, principal at Elliston-Lafayette Elementary School and chairwoman of the health advisory board, said the policy will be a "living document" and won't be a vast overhaul of school health.

Matt Gentry | Roanoke Times

Fifth grade students Alison Weincyzk (left) and Reba Helm enjoy chef salads for lunch at Elliston Lafayette Elementary.

"We're going to take what we already have and enhance it," she said.

Boyle said that in elementary schools, children receive 30 minutes of physical education twice a week. Children get lessons in nutrition for their classroom teacher, and chef salad is always a choice for lunch.

Boyle said she sees evidence of a growing awareness about health. For example, there are more healthy foods present at class parties.

For Toensing, it is a matter of awareness. Kids have soda all the time now, she said. She remembered when she was in high school, there was only one vending machine and it distributed a small Dixie cup of soda.

"What was a treat, has become the norm," she said. "It's about setting limits and being role models for our kids."