Frequently Asked Questions
We cannot accept every school that requests to be an APPLE school due to budgetary restrictions. When we do have a budget for expansion, we contact school jurisdictions who identify vulnerable schools that would most benefit from the project.
APPLE Schools does not create its own policies around nutrition, physical activity, or mental health. We educate schools about using existing, research-backed guidelines, including Canada’s Food Guide, Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth, 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, and Alberta Education’s Daily Physical Activity Initiative. We also bring awareness to any existing division policies or school policies and support schools to create their own wellness policy or guideline that fits their healthy school vision and specific school community.
We encourage schools to focus on the foods served in the school and make healthy changes. We do not focus on students’ lunches as they often lack control over what goes in them. We discourage shaming around food choices and work with schools to create positive food environments. One way we do this is by supporting and sharing the Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth, which categorizes foods as choose most often, choose sometimes, and choose least often. We never tell students they are not allowed to eat something. Instead, we empower them to make a healthy choice.
You can find a list of our funders here.
We spend 81 per cent of our budget on implementing the project in schools. This includes money for school action plans and in-school staff. The remaining 19 per cent goes toward administration costs.
When we need to recruit volunteers, or hire staff, we will post the opportunity on our Twitter and Facebook, and our website homepage.