Nutrition and exercise are two components of a healthy body. Most people accept that "your health" is the essential element for a joyous and happy life. Food is considered one of the fundamental conditions for health by the World Declaration on Nutrition, International Conference on Nutrition, the World Health Organization, and the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Research demonstrates a significant relationship between a child's nutritional intake and a child's physical, emotion and intellectual readiness to learn. Poor nutrition is also linked to irritability and poor concentration.

April 20th, 1999 was a day that changed my life. It began like many other days, but somewhere along the way, an emotional tsunami flooded my consciousness as news emerged of a school shooting at Columbine High School in Middleton, Colorado. Eight days later, a copycat shooting took place at a high school in rural Alberta. This was clearly not a "Big-city" problem or an "American" problem; it was everyone's problem, as a Canadian parent and educator, it was also MY problem.

There now appears to be widespread acceptance of the belief that a coalition of support is necessary to achieve the curricular and organizational reforms that have been undertaken across school systems in recent years.

Additionally, an impressive body of research has pointed to the fact that improved parental involvement is closely related to significant gains in several measures of school and classroom success. In a related article, Renihan and Renihan (1994) noted that recent studies had found that parental involvement is related to decreased absenteeism, improved achievement and improved perceptions of school and classroom climate.