Sometimes losing a battle is a good thing.

When Carey Dabney initially failed in her efforts four years ago to have junk food removed from Austin ISD campuses, she began searching for other ways to address the issue.

Linking up with other individuals interested in improving school health, she ultimately became one of the founding members of the Austin ISD School Health Advisory Council (SHAC). The council has given her an opportunity to have an impact on student health in her district that far exceeds her original goal.

SHACs were created by legislative mandate in 2001, and are designed to play an advisory role on student health in a district (see related article, Does Your District Have a SHAC?). As a result of recommendations made by Austin's SHAC in its first year and input from town meetings, the district created the AISD Initiative for Healthy Children.

Under the guidelines of that initiative, the SHAC created a multi-year strategic plan called Fit, Healthy and Ready to Learn. Dabney, who chaired the nutrition committee at the time, was a principal author.

Fit, Healthy and Ready to Learn is aimed at raising awareness of the need for better nutrition and fitness in students. The ultimate goal is for all schools to create healthier environments over time.

"The plan is voluntary in nature, and we were hoping to get five schools interested in being part of it in our first year," said Dabney. "We had 26 sign up."

Fit, Healthy and Ready to Learn received a Texas Department of Health award for excellence for promoting collaboration between schools, parents, and community organizations to improve school nutrition, increase physical activity, and provide tools and resources for stakeholders to achieve those goals.

Specific achievements of the initiative include district-wide K-12 adoption of the Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value policy that removed sodas from all schools in AISD, and the award of a grant from the Steps to a Healthier U.S., which has allowed AISD to run two Universal Breakfast and Working Out for Wellness pilot programs.

The initiative has also been featured in Making It Happen: School Nutrition Success Stories (www.fns.usda.gov/tn/New/index.htm) as a case study on how a SHAC should work with a district to achieve nutrition awareness goals.