The Peggs School SWAT team is out to take down drugs and unhealthy living. Not to be confused with special weapons and tactics teams, Students Working Against Tobacco is a youth-led initiative to promote healthy foods, an active lifestyle, and to encourage abstinence from cigarettes and other drug use.
“We have three goals that we have set, which are: educating our school kids and our school community pertaining to nutrition; encouraging physical activity; and abstaining from tobacco, vaping, and other drug use,” said Carolyn Robbins, Peggs principal.
Sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition can lead to child obesity, which is a challenge in rural Oklahoma. The Peggs SWAT program gives youth a space where they can disseminate information about food and healthy-living to fellow classmates.
The Peggs SWAT team is working with the Farm To School program to bring fresh fruit and vegetables to the school. Students have the opportunity to purchase items with “veggie bucks” to take home to their families.
In February on Valentine’s Day, while students passed out cookies and cupcakes, the SWAT team took time to educate students about the importance of eating good foods too.
“We were trying to communicate that they need to make healthy choices, and they can be good for you and taste good too,” said Robbins.
The club recently presented on nutrition and the importance of eating well. The students set up a food-tasting station where kids had the chance to eat fresh vegetables using dip made from low-fat sour cream mixed with dry packets of ranch, and fresh fruit with dip made from Greek yogurt mixed with raw honey and cinnamon.
“The kids went berserk over it. They took all the food,” said Robbins.
The seventh and eighth graders made presentations detailing the health benefits of individual vegetables. Students learned about the role of vitamins and minerals, which are necessary for the body. Students handed out coloring sheets for the younger kids to fill out.
The school is also developing a healthy cookbook, which Robbins hopes will come out by the end of the year.
Peggs has now opened the school track, which is open to Peggs families during the evening hours.
“It is open at night, and they can walk or jog and use the facility,” said Robbins.
The SWAT team also helps with the school’s annual jump-a-thon, which will take place at the end of March.
Throughoug the year, students are encourages other students to abstain from or quit tobacco use.
“As far as drug use, we do a lot of different things. For Halloween, we make headstones that have silly comments about what using tobacco can lead to. We put them around in the hallways, so parents and kids stop and read them and see that,”
Students in each classroom put up a door cover, each, with a Halloween-theme to encourage students to live drug-free.