Evaluation Indicators: Environmental Settings: Long Term

The OrganWise Guys Program (OWG)

 The OrganWise Guys Program (OWG) is a direct education and PSE change intervention designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and increase physical activity among participants, as well as facilitate PSE changes in the settings in which it is conducted. SNAP-Ed staff or trained classroom teachers provide direct education through various curriculum to youth in child-care and school settings and provide support materials for families. The WISERCISE! program provides 10-minutes of desk-side daily physical activity in the classroom. Foods of the Month helps create a healthy cafeteria environment via daily nutrition messaging and outreach to parents. The OWG gardening curriculum helps establish gardens while children learn to grow and consume homegrown food. These curriculum focus on PSE changes by working with school wellness councils to develop policies that address foods served at school events, establish school gardens, and improve and promote school meals/snacks. Partnerships and parent/adult engagement in positive health behaviors can lead to PSE change that is sustainable and beneficial community wide.

Target Behavior: Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

My TIME to Eat Healthy and Move More (My TIME)

My TIME to Eat Healthy and Move More (My TIME) is a direct education intervention designed to actively engage parents and children in a co-learning process as they experience how to make healthy food choices and become more physically active. Instead of telling parents what is best for their family, My TIME offers hands-on activities to draw on their unique experiences.This facilitates an educational opportunity that encourages the learners to reflect, share, and ultimately identify goals and actions to create a healthier family. T. I. M. E. symbolizes the four core principles of the program: Together, Inspire, Motivate, and Empower. Over the course of a month, the parent and child work together with the home visitor to learn practical tips to eat healthily and move more. Taste-testing activities are used to inspire healthy eating. Simple ideas promoting daily exercise are offered to motivate parents and children to move more. Lastly, My TIME empowers families to stay connected to the goals and opportunities that they identified to improve the health of their family.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Nutrition Environment Food Pantry Assessment Tool

The Nutrition Environment Food Pantry Assessment Tool (NEFPAT) is a PSE change intervention that includes a food pantry environmental assessment designed to quantify the nutrition environment of food pantries and promote the adoption of healthy food pantry best practices. NEFPAT users complete the intervention in 5 phases: partner engagement, assessment, action planning, intervention, and re-assessment. Users identify potential pantry partners and develop a strong partner relationship. Users find a baseline score by determining the pantry’s strengths and areas of improvement for its nutrition environment. Pantry personnel and NEFPAT users then collaboratively customize small or large-scale action plans that address food distribution styles, pantry layout, promotion techniques of healthful foods, variety of fruits and vegetables available, accessibility of information about community resources, and meeting the needs of a diverse pantry audience. NEFPAT includes suggested best practices for these categories to create a pantry environment that promotes dignity and inclusivity, and a space that makes the healthy choice, the easy choice.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Motivating Adolescents to CHOOSE Health, MATCH

The Motivating Adolescents with Technology to CHOOSE Health (MATCH) is a direct education and PSE Change intervention designed to decrease BMI and increase healthy eating and physical activity among 7th-grade students. Lessons are taught over one academic year by subject-level teachers and provide a conceptual understanding of positive dietary and physical activity habits and the potential effects on health status. Lessons and are embedded within national curriculum standards for Math, Language Arts, Healthful Living, Science, and Social Studies. The behavior modification component includes individual application, self-monitoring, goal-setting, and skill-building to begin internalizing positive health behaviors. MATCH includes a web-based data management system that provides teachers with all necessary resources and materials, tracks participant results with functionality to generate reports, and allows school administrators and project staff to monitor fidelity and manage data. Students’ heights and weights and self-report health behaviors are collected pre- and post-intervention to assess the effectiveness of the program.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds: Nutrition Workshops for Teachers

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds: Nutrition Workshops for Teachers is a direct education intervention designed to increase the knowledge and self-efficacy of teachers, in order to support them in providing SNAP-Ed direct education in their classroom. HBHM is a series of 8 workshops that provide background nutrition information, as well as ideas and resources for incorporating nutrition and physical activity into the school day. These teacher trainings are not designed to be delivered in isolation, but instead should be offered as part of a more comprehensive model of programming. SNAP-Ed resources should be provided to teachers as part of the series and professional development topics should align with these resources. When possible, SNAP-Ed staff should be supporting the site with PSE change to support the nutrition education programming and increase opportunities for students to make healthy choices.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time

Intervention Type: Direct Education

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation) Healthy Schools Program (HSP)

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program (HSP) is a PSE intervention designed to create healthier school environments for students and staff. HSP addresses multiple factors that lead to poor health — from physical activity and nutrition to social-emotional health and sleep. HSP leads school and district staff through the following 6-step continuous improvement process to implement the Framework of Best Practices: 1) convene a School Wellness Committee (SWC), 2) assess the school health environment using the HSP assessment, 3) develop an action plan tailored to school priorities based on what is important and achievable, 4) explore HSP resources and tools, 5) take action to implement the plan and achieve school goals 6) celebrate success and monitor progress. HSP facilitates the development of partnerships during step one and provides support to schools to implement evidence-based policies and practices related to nutrition and physical activity. Schools document their need and readiness for change in step two by completing the HSP assessment. The sixth step addresses program recognition by celebrating schools’ success through Healthier Generation’s national recognition program. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Voices for Food (VFF)

Voices for Food (VFF) is a PSE change intervention designed to enhance food security in diverse rural communities with high poverty rates, utilize community coaches to develop new or provide support to existing food councils, and encourage policy changes in local food pantries that increase the availability of healthy foods. VFF focuses on the engagement of community coaches with communities to achieve intervention objectives while utilizing VFF materials. Community coaches address food system issues by focusing on local food policy and making environmental changes, such as community gardens, aiding the food pantry in obtaining more space, and working on other issues of food security. Community coaches work collaboratively with food pantries to make PSE changes that transition to a client choice model of distribution (MyChoice) and offer the VFF Ambassador’s training, which includes nutrition education, cultural competency training, and food safety training. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Project breakFAST (Fueling Academics and Strengthening Teens)

Project breakFAST is a Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change intervention designed to increase high school breakfast participation. In this intervention, a school breakfast team, made up of students, school food service, administration, teachers, and other key staff is formed to design and implement a grab-and-go breakfast outside the traditional cafeteria setting. School policies are changed to allow students to eat school breakfast in the hallways or classrooms. A student-led marketing campaign is conducted to encourage students to eat school breakfast. With the increased school breakfast participation, most schools are able to recoup start-up costs within one month and make a profit on school breakfast. Project breakFAST promotes healthier eating as high school students ate breakfast more often, ate more fruit servings, and did not have a change in overall calorie intake despite the increase in eating breakfast. Project breakFAST also addresses food insecurity as breakfast participation increased among low-income students and regular pay students. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance 

Intervention Type: PSE Change.

The Safe and Healthy Food Pantries Project (SHFPP)

The Safe and Healthy Food Pantries Project (SHFPP) is a PSE change intervention designed to improve the food environment and food safety practices within an emergency food pantry. The SHFPP manual provides tools to support the adoption of research-informed strategies likely to expand access and promote safe and healthy food. Users are encouraged to follow an action cycle with 5 steps outlined in the manual (e.g., assessment, strategies, action planning, implementation, and evaluation). The project is implemented and maintained with collaboration between SNAP-Ed educators, food pantry staff and volunteers, and other stakeholders. This team is encouraged to assess where changes can be made including readiness and sources of food procurement. The stand-alone tools help guide the team to plan policies and practices that change the food pantry environment in terms of health and safety. Example strategies include donor education, improvements in food layout or display, signage, procuring local food, and food safety and nutrition policies. Finally, the toolkit emphasizes continuously evaluating and assessing the efforts and changes made in the pantry.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance, Other: Food Safety

 Intervention Type: PSE Change

The Culture of Wellness in Preschools: Policy, System and Environment Change Process (COWP)

The Culture of Wellness in Preschools, Policy, System and Environment Change Process (COWP PSE Change Process) is a PSE change intervention designed to implement an average of five changes that promote healthy eating and physical activity in early childcare centers. Interdisciplinary wellness teams are comprised of 3-8 early childcare center staff who work together to participate in three key change-making strategies: 1) conducting a strengths and needs assessment related to healthy eating and physical activity practices, 2) prioritizing best practice PSE changes based on importance and feasibility, and 3) developing action steps and planning for implementation and sustainability. Toolkit materials are provided to each site to support the implementation of their selected PSE changes. COWP facilitators help early childcare center staff develop center-specific wellness policies highlighting their adopted PSE changes to ensure sustainability.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time

Intervention Type: PSE Change