The Schools: Combining Nutrition and Physical Education to Beat Obesity at the Start
Schools
The Healthy Schools Partnership
About one-third of American children are overweight, and approximately 20 percent are considered obese. These children are at risk of being overweight for life. As a result, the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation is focusing its efforts on children ages 6-11, emphasizing lifelong physical activity and positive nutrition habits through a school-based curriculum. The Foundation identified the Healthy Schools Partnership as its prototype program. A multi-year grant will enable the Foundation to expand and replicate the program beyond its current pilots in the Kansas City metropolitan area to reach schools in the Des Moines, Iowa metropolitan area. Training academies will support a “train the trainer” approach for future efforts. This expansion will yield proven results and valuable information on the impact of the prototype, supporting future development of similar programs by corporations, communities and schools.
Healthy Schools Partnership Program Features:
Delivered in partnership with the American Dietetic Association Foundation and PE4life
- Combine nutrition and physical education to teach energy balance.
- Develop long-term solutions to the youth obesity epidemic.
- Deliver an innovative school-based program that engages children, using gaming, technology, and alternatives to traditional PE activities, and encourages them to learn while they play.
- Teach children that the calories they consume and the calories they expend must be in balance (in partnership with Registered Dietician nutrition coaches and PE4life teachers).
Measuring Our Progress
The University of California, Berkeley Center for Weight and Health will evaluate the progress of the prototype communities over a three-year period, measuring the following:
- Student knowledge, attitudes and behavior regarding energy balance to maintain a healthy weight (physical and nutrition education)
- Impact of the program on fitness scores and BMI numbers
- Improved food behavior in school lunch through the use of digital photography of lunch trays pre/post intervention
- Increased physical activity on weekdays through the use of accelerometers pre/post intervention.
- Researchers will also assess the value of the Healthy Schools Partnership by interviewing school administrators, teachers and foodservice personnel to quantify changes in the school environment associated with the program
Prototype: Kansas City and Des Moines Metro Areas
Overview
In 2007, three national organizations joined forces to form the initial Healthy Schools Partnership: the American Council on Fitness and Nutrition, the American Dietetic Association Foundation and PE4life. Their success enabled the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation’s expansion of the program in Kansas City and Des Moines.
The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation expanded the program in 2009 to four additional schools in Kansas City and four schools in the Des Moines area to provide a prototype and research results that other organizations can build upon to offer combined energy balance programs in their communities. Preliminary results prompted Iowa Business Council members, including Hy-Vee, Inc. (a Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation member), to launch their Adopt-a-School Challenge in 50 additional schools in the Des Moines area.
Objectives
- Improve nutrition knowledge and physical fitness.
- Change food and physical activity behaviors.
- Empower students to balance what they eat with physical activity.
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Help reduce the incidence of childhood obesity.
Partners
The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation is partnering with experts in nutrition education and physical education to support the prototype efforts:
