The Wellness Committee Report, led by Nancy Mathison, proved a healthy issue at Tuesday’s Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees for the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. The presentation outlined improvements in the district’s myriad nutrition initiatives and was cheered on by Wellness Committee member Starr Green and trustee Nicole Abaté Ducarroz, who donned chef hats in a show of support.

During an open post-presentation spit-ball session, several ideas were submitted to the committee by attendees. Among them was the notion of creating an alliance between Sonoma Valley High School’s culinary arts classes and a senior student’s forthcoming organic garden project in a proposed effort to provide snacks for students, grown by students and prepared by students. The name “Fresh Fridays” was suggested and many seemed smitten with the catchy moniker, not least of all for its alliteration.

Other speakers attempted to answer the old rhetorical trope “Read any good books lately?” with recommended reading on related topics such as organics, GMOs and nutrition. “Food Politics” and “Chew on This!” were suggested, ditto “Nourishing Traditions” which came courtesy of Chris Elms, who also advocated granting students physical eduction credits for riding their bicycles to school.

Preston Sitterly, a mentor in the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance/Stand By Me Mentoring Program, chewed the fat when discussing stout students he purports to have seen at the high school.

“I’ll be quite honest, the first time I saw a class come out I thought it was a remedial class for kids with special needs as far as physical education,” said Sitterly, a runner who uses the school’s track. “I’d say that probably half the kids in this class were obese and probably couldn’t make it once around the track.”