Chester Community Charter School Receives $750,000 Grant to Develop Physical Education and Nutrition Program

Chester Community Charter School Receives Funding from the U.S. Department of Education for its Children’s Healthy Eating Supports Their Education and Recreation (C.H.E.S.T.E.R.) Program

Chester, PA., April 17, 2014 – Chester Community Charter School (CCCS), the largest K-8 charter school in Pennsylvania, today announced that it has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the United States Department of Education, and the department’s Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP), for the development and implementation of its Children’s Healthy Eating Supports Their Education and Recreation (C.H.E.S.T.E.R.) initiative.

CCCS was one of 67 recipients of the grant funding, nationwide, out of a total 417 applicants.

The C.H.E.S.T.E.R program was created to encourage students to develop positive exercise practices, while educating them on the importance of making healthy food decisions and having a lifelong focus on physical wellbeing.

The C.H.E.S.T.E.R. program at CCCS is designed with six primary objectives:

1.      Increase the number of students who engage in 60 minutes of physical exercise, each day,

2.      Increase the number of students who eat fruits at least twice per day and vegetables, at least three times per day,

3.      Increase students’ knowledge of age-appropriate concepts regarding healthy nutrition,

4.      Improve students’ cognitive concepts about motor skills and physical fitness that support a lifelong healthy lifestyle,

5.      Implement a high-quality nutrition/physical education program taught by well-trained teachers, utilizing strategies that focus on lifelong health, fitness, and wellness for all students, and

6.      Increase the percentage of students who meet the standard of a Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ), a set of criterion-referenced standards established by The Cooper Institute of Dallas, Texas, that represent minimum levels of fitness that offer protection against diseases that result from sedentary living.

“This grant creates a great opportunity for our students to not only eat better and become physically fit, but also to truly understand the lifetime benefits of a healthy lifestyle,” said Dr. David Clark, CEO of CCCS. 

Dr. Clark continued, “In our world, today, students are bombarded with advertisements for sugary foods and soda, and are all too inclined to use recreation time to surf the Internet or play video games. With the C.H.E.S.T.E.R. Program, we are going to work to reverse these trends and instill in our students a real sense of the value of eating right and staying healthy, and I think students are going to enjoy being a part of it.”