E-mail a friendDr. Yvonne Sanders-Butler
airdate September 24, 2009
Since '98, nutritional advocate Yvonne Sanders-Butler has been principal of Browns Mill Elementary and Magnet School, in Lithonia, GA—the only sugar-free school in the U.S. She's also founder of Healthy Kids, Smart Kids and founder-president of Ennovy, an organization created to help ignite wellness and healthier lifestyles. Following a near-death experience due to poor health, Sanders-Butler began working with school systems to implement innovative health initiatives. She's also authored two books.
Elementary school principal describes how a focus on nutrition and physical activity impacts children. (2:28)
Full interview (10:21)
Dr. Yvonne Sanders-Butler
Tavis: As we continue our look at the issue of childhood obesity tonight I wanted to highlight an example of just what one person can do to make a difference in our communities.
Dr. Yvonne Sanders-Butler is a former high school principal in Atlanta who now serves as the executive director of health promotion in DeKalb County. In 1999 she started something called the sugar-free zone, which has been heralded now as a model all across the country for healthier kids.
A quick note about her backstory. Dr. Butler was born to sharecroppers in my native Mississippi and despite the poverty of her youth she went on to college, eventually receiving, of course, a Ph.D. specifically in education.
She joins us tonight from Atlanta. Dr. Butler, nice to have you on this program.
Dr. Yvonne Sanders-Butler: It's always good to be with you, Tavis, and so I'll be able to go home tonight, I am an elementary school principal and I'm actually in metro Atlanta, DeKalb County. So I just wanted to be able to go home tomorrow.
Tavis: If I said high school, I meant elementary school. I don't want to anger the little kids. Have them throwing stuff at me when I come to Atlanta. (Laughter) I take that.
Let me jump right, though, in the time I have, to your story, because there is another part of your story that I didn't mention because I wanted to leave room for you to explain this, but what got you on this sugar-free zone kick in the first place, and the story that has to do with your own health? I'll let you tell it.
Sanders-Butler: Thank you, Tavis. First of all I am a survivor of childhood and adult obesity. I almost lost my life to a stroke 13 years ago. A lifetime of overeating, I was born and raised, as you say, in rural Mississippi, grew up on lots of cakes, pies, and fried chicken and catfish and somewhere along the way I developed an addiction for sugar and high carbs.
And eventually, any habit, it has to come to an end. So 13 years ago I almost had a stroke, almost lost my life, and the physician told me that I would not have a second chance. That I had to lose 60 pounds, I had to get some of the stress out of my life and work out, and that was very difficult because what I would like to tell the viewers tonight is that I had four educational degrees, working on a doctorate, and yet I was ignorant about how the lack of good nutrition, very little physical activity, was in my life. I ran hard, I did all of the right things, but when it came to my diet and physical activity, that wasn't in my life, which almost cost me my life.
So when I was able to do research I learned that I was just one of 60 million people in America suffering from the diseases that obesity brings, like hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and what I know today, and if research and the trend continues that currently 52 percent of African Americans are overweight or obese.
We are the highest with the obesity rate of any other race in this country. But research is also saying if we do not get control of this disease that by 2035 over 90 percent of African American will be obese and 91 percent of Hispanic men.
And so I had an opportunity as a school principal to stop the path that my children were on. Because what I saw every day, my children were eating tons of cookies and chocolate milk, no one really ate vegetables, fruit. Those things went in the garbage.
And we didn't do it on purpose but somehow PE just sort of left the schoolhouse and no children wanted to really go outside and play like we did growing up. And so I knew that God had given me a second chance to get this right, and I went on this mission to change nutrition as I knew it in my school, to rework the curriculum and put in education about nutrition, and also to pump up the physical activity and get our children back outside playing again.
And I wish I could tell you that Yvonne Butler did this by herself, but I had a great staff, wonderful kids who have championed this cause for the last 11 years, and a community that embraced this cause.
Tavis: And the community - you're being - I appreciate the story. It's a powerful story. I know that the community - I want to add the word ultimately - the community ultimately and eventually embraced your cause, but I know you ain't going to tell me that you told (laughter) a bunch of kids we taking all the sugar out the school and everybody started jumping down saying hallelujah, speaking in tongues. I know that didn't happen.
Sanders-Butler: Well, what did happen, I had a strong group of parents that showed up like three days later to say that we hired you to be the principal and who says that my child can't have chocolate cake and chocolate milk?
Tavis: That's what I thought. (Laughter)
Sanders-Butler: So then that went to the school board. I was reported to the school board. However, I pleaded my case, Tavis, and what I can share with you today and with the audience, that 10 years ago I shared with the PTA president that if we do not get control of our children's diet and put physical activity back into their life, this will be the first generation of children that will die before their parents.
And what we know today, that one-third of our children in the United States are overweight or obese, but for children of color, especially African American children, 35 percent of these children are overweight or obese.
Tavis: When you instituted the program, you got some pushback initially. People finally came on board. Give me some sense of how successful the program was, ultimately, in your school.
Sanders-Butler: What I can share with you, six months after we had implemented the program, the sugar-free zone, which is now Healthy Kids / Smart Kids, we certainly saw discipline referrals drop by at least 23 percent. Counseling referrals dropped as well, and the first year, that first school year of standardized test scores, our reading scores increased by 15 percent.
In 2005 and 2008, Browns Mill was a National School of Excellence, Georgia School of Excellence, and in 2005 we were a National Blue Ribbon School. So we have fostered in a healthy environment at Browns Mill and we have continued to show success.
Also, last year the program was implemented, Healthy Kids / Smart Kids, in 17 Fulton County schools and it is impacting over 20,000 children in the Creekside / Westlake cluster.
Tavis: I take it, then, looking at what - back to your point - the opportunity, the second chance that God gave you, I assume you feel pretty good now looking back on it, even though you got some pushback about what you've been able to do, pushing these kids to get rid of the sugar in their lives.
Sanders-Butler: I'm very excited about that, and what I want to share with you is that childhood obesity is preventable and it must be a critical component of the healthcare reform, the discussion that we're having today. When we talk about the national agenda, we have 55 million children that are school age that are with us from eight to 12 hours each day.
In the national agenda we need policy, Tavis. This doesn't just have to happen at Browns Mill or 17 other schools in Georgia. If we have effective policy it can facilitate collaboration across agencies like USDA, HHS, also the Department of Education. But also insurance companies, who are receiving, I'm sure, an onslaught with obesity.
Also policy would encourage and support schools that implemented wellness policies, and we need policies, we need schools to show us that you have implemented a policy, that it's working, but we also need funding.
But more importantly than that, school principals have a lot of clout in communities, especially in elementary schools. We need to train leaders in school to implement, to plan, and to ensure that wellness programs are going way up. If this is done and it's done right, I believe within five years we will see the same success that we're having at Browns Mill.
We also will see some of the same trends that we're seeing in Fulton. This will drastically reduce childhood obesity in all communities but especially in the African American and Hispanic community, and the diseases that come with it.
What I'm saying is if we put money in health and we have healthy kids, no matter where they are they are going to be ready to do their best work. So we have to work across government agencies. It's just not left up to HHS. USDA has the only governmental policy, the school wellness policy, but the Department of Education - if you have sick children, you have kids with diabetes, you have kids with hypertension, I can promise you they're not going to function.
Tavis: Well, you are a living epistle, a living example of that old adage that it's not about the skill, it's about the will. Do we have the will to do it? Clearly, you've shown we have the skill to do it. Dr. Yvonne Sanders-Butler, thank you for coming on, thank you for the work that you have done and continue to do, and thank you for sharing your story with us.
Sanders-Butler: Thank you for having me, Tavis.
Tavis: My pleasure.
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