Setting: School (Learn)

Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaching Program

The Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program (SYDCP) facilitates partnerships between medical training programs and high schools serving youth from socioeconomically disadvantaged and underrepresented minority communities. The SYDCP is a “train the trainer program” in which medical residents (and other health professional trainees) train high school students to coach family members with diabetes or other chronic illnesses. The program consists of 8 tightly scripted, interactive PowerPoint based lessons that incorporate evidence-based approaches to chronic disease management, highlighting healthy eating and physical activity. The curriculum is based on Kate Lorig’s Adult Chronic Disease Self-Management Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and peer health coaching, and is designed to address the burden of chronic disease in underserved communities by focusing on health knowledge, communication skills, goal setting, problem solving, and healthy behaviors. 

Please Note: Medical nutrition therapy is not allowable for SNAP-Ed. We strongly recommend you partner with a healthcare professional to provide those components of this intervention. Components focused on healthy eating and physical activity are appropriate for SNAP-Ed. 

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Turtle Island Tales Family Wellness Program

The Turtle Island Tales family wellness program is a home-based, family-level, direct education intervention designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, decrease added sugar intake, increase physical activity, decrease sedentary/screen time, promote healthy sleep, and promote emotional regulation, providing low-income, SNAP-eligible American Indian (AI) families with skills and tools needed to make healthy lifestyle choices. The year-long 12 lesson program is designed to be mailed into the home monthly as a kit focused on a particular topic each month. Each kit contains themed printed lessons for adults, a children’s book on the topic, support items, and multiple activities for adults and children (3-8 years). Each lesson is designed for use in the home by families for approximately 1-2 hours each month; additional games and recipes in the kit and online encourage engagement throughout the month. The program is reinforced by social media (Instagram/Facebook) and a website that contains healthy recipes, active games, tips for wellness, and short character-based films, and complements and reinforces existing policy, systems, and environmental change interventions in Native communities, such as community gardens, traditional activities, and tribal wellness programs. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reduced Screen Time, Other: Sleep, emotional regulation 

Intervention Type: Direct Education 

Common Threads: Cooking Skills and World Cuisine Program

Cooking Skills and World Cuisine (CSWC) is a direct education intervention targeting elementary and middle school aged children designed to increase nutrition knowledge, culinary skills, liking of vegetables, vegetable consumption, and communication about healthy eating between students and families. Each lesson explores a different country’s cuisine and teaches young chefs how to follow a recipe, prepare and cook ingredients, and leave the kitchen as clean as they found it. Students that have completed the Cooking Skills and World Cuisine program are able to cook a balanced healthy meal that includes whole grains, lean protein, fruits, and vegetables. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating 

Intervention Type: Direct Education 

Steps to Health’s Nuts and Bolts of a Healthy Food Pantry

The Nuts and Bolts of a Health Food Pantry Toolkit is a direct education and PSE change intervention that is designed to support pantries in improving the food environment so their clients can choose healthy food and beverage items. The components of the Toolkit include a resource guide, baseline and follow-up assessments to explore opportunities for PSE, training modules for food pantry staff and volunteers, action planning tools for sustaining PSE changes, and promotional materials, such as signage and “nudge” cards to influence healthy choices. The Toolkit equips partners to share best practices when collaborating with food pantries.  

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance  

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change 

PowerUp Your School

PowerUp Your School (PowerUp) is an evidence-based physical activity program aligned with academic standards and social-emotional learning skills. As a direct education program, PowerUp helps youth meet national physical activity guidelines by engaging K-8th grade participants in 30 minutes of physical activity, a minimum of two times per week, in before and after school settings. Every PowerUp lesson is aligned with national Math and English Language Arts academic standards to engage students in active learning. Designed to minimize barriers to physical activity, PowerUp does not require any equipment and can be successfully implemented in a variety of spaces including gymnasiums, cafeterias, classrooms, hallways, common spaces, or outdoors. 

Target Behavior: Physical Activity and Reduced Screen Time 

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Growing Healthy Kids: Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Curriculum

Growing Healthy Kids (GHK) is a garden-themed, direct education curriculum aimed to integrate nutrition education with gardening to promote healthy eating and healthy choices among children, best aligned for students in 2nd and 3rd grade. GHK teaches nutrition education concepts closely aligned with MyPlate messages suitable for a SNAP-Ed audience and includes seven lessons with options for an outdoor, indoor, or hybrid (combination of activities from both mural and indoor gardens) garden, giving students opportunities to learn basic plant parts and try a variety of fruits and vegetables. Along with core journaling and gardening activities, lessons include food tasting activities, recipe printouts, physical activity options, coloring sheets, and suggestions for supplemental storybooks to go with lesson themes. Many connections to the Food Hero social marketing campaign exist within the curriculum. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating 

Intervention Type: Direct Education 

Around the Table

Around the Table is a direct education intervention for youth that upholds principles of trauma-informed engagement and nourishment. It is designed to improve cooking skills, food safety, food resource management, and healthy eating, as well as increase awareness surrounding stress, emotional eating, health values, and feeding children. Participants enjoy hands-on cooking, facilitated conversations, and interactive activities that build healthy connections to food, self, and community.  

Additionally, Around the Table: Nourishing Families is for young adults and parents. It is a curriculum that upholds principles of trauma-informed engagement and nourishment where participants enjoy conversation, reflection, cooking, sharing a meal together, and learning holistic skills to care for their families’ nutritional well-being.  

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating  
Intervention Type: Direct Education 

Food Smarts

Food Smarts is a direct education intervention that is designed to support healthy behavior change in the areas of healthy eating, food safety, cooking, food waste reduction and food resource management. In 2022, Leah’s Pantry released an updated version of Food Smarts that incorporates principles of trauma-informed nutrition.  Food Smarts is a flexible, learner-centered, multi-session nutrition and cooking program with several available lesson plans to fit the needs of a variety of settings. A kitchen is not required for the implementation of the intervention, but participants can be engaged in simple recipe preparation as an instructional strategy. The adult curriculum of Food Smarts is available in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean. The youth curriculum is available in English.  

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating  
Intervention Type: Direct Education 

Text2LiveHealthy

The Text2LiveHealthy (T2LH) intervention is a direct education and social marketing intervention designed to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables, increase physical activity, and increase family consumption of water while decreasing consumption of sugary beverages among the entire family. T2LH is a nutrition and physical activity digital health outreach effort that links the Integrated Nutrition Education Program (INEP) and Culture of Wellness in Preschools (COWP) youth education provided in classrooms to homes via text messaging, in order to influence behavior change for SNAP-eligible families across Colorado. The messages are easy to use and include goal-setting for healthy behavior change, fun and easy recipes, family-friendly physical activity ideas, motivational messages and links to resources. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance  
Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing 

Drexel University High School Nutrition Curriculum

The Drexel University High School Nutrition Curriculum is a direct education curriculum designed to teach high school students the principles of the MyPlate Food Guidance system, while encouraging them to make healthy behavior changes to their own eating styles. Students will adopt or continue healthy eating habits that include: making half the plate fruits and vegetables, choose fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, and limit foods that are high in saturated fat, trans fat, added sugars, and sodium. This will allow students to work towards maintaining a proper energy balance to promote a healthy weight. Drexel University’s PA SNAP-Ed/Eat Right Philly program is a partner to the Pennsylvania (PA) SNAP-Ed Program (PA SNAP-Ed) and the School District of Philadelphia’s Eat Right Philly Program. The intervention works to foster positive healthy habits related to nutrition and physical activity. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating  
Intervention Type: Direct Education 

FoodCorps Healthy School Toolkit

The FoodCorps Healthy School Toolkit is a PSE change intervention designed to improve school food environments over time. The Toolkit includes a research-backed assessment tool that is used by school teams to assess healthy school food environment activities. The Toolkit also includes the Action Plan, a tool that guides school teams in setting goals and vision to improve school food environments. The Healthy School Progress Report was developed through an evaluation partnership with Columbia University’s Teachers College. It assesses the school food environment across sixteen indicator areas known to contribute to healthy eating behaviors in children, spanning hands-on nutrition education, school gardening, and food preparation experience to the culture of healthy eating in the cafeteria and throughout the school’s practices. It is expected that schools actively using these tools and seeking to implement activities that support a healthy school food environment will make incremental progress on an annual basis.   

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating  
Intervention Type: PSE Change 

Veggie Van (VV) Toolkit

The Veggie Van (VV) Toolkit is a policy, systems, and environmental change intervention designed to:

  • Increase access to healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables in lower income and/or food insecure communities
  • Help the target population improve their diets through skill building
  • Address the interplay between the physical food environment, individual perceptions of that environment, and self-efficacy
  • Address multiple dimensions of access to fresh produce for lower-income and under-served communities, including availability, affordability, accessibility (geographic and financial), and accommodation
  • Improve self-efficacy for finding, purchasing, and preparing fruits and vegetables or other healthy foods via cooking and nutrition education interventions

VV achieves these goals via mobile farmers markets that present cooking demonstrations, recipes, taste tests, and nutrition education to help customers better use the produce they receive. VV mobile markets also accept SNAP benefits, electronic benefits (EBT), and other relevant local food incentive and benefit programs, as well as employ a bundling model in addition to a la carte purchasing. The bundling model allows the VV mobile markets to sell more items at a lower cost and expose participants to a greater variety of fruits and vegetables. Markets operate a minimum of 10 months out of the year and typically source produce locally or regionally.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: PSE Change

PSE Readiness Assessment and Decision Instrument (PSE READI)

The PSE READI intervention was designed with guidance from SNAP-Ed and public health practitioners in Ohio to promote successful implementation of community nutrition Policy, System, and Environmental (PSE) programs as a broader strategy for obesity prevention. Practitioners can take the online PSE Readiness Assessment and Decision Instrument (READI) to assess their community’s readiness and capacity to implement community nutrition PSE changes. The PSE READI can be completed by an individual or the practitioner can invite community members to share their input in a team assessment. The six different PSE READIs currently available include: Farmers’ Markets, Healthy Food Retail, Farm to School, Healthy Eating Policies in Childcare, Food Pantries and K-12 Schools. After completion of your PSE READI, a report will be generated with three recommendations. These recommendations will help practitioners and teams plan next steps and guide community nutrition PSE implementation tailored to local community readiness and capacity. The PSE READI website includes a curated resource library with over 1,000 toolkits, guides, and other evidence-based PSE resources that provide guidance to help end-users put into action their community nutrition PSE implementation.  

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating  
Intervention Type: PSE Change 

Families Eating Smart and Moving More (FESMM)

Families Eating Smart, Moving More (FESMM) is a direct education intervention designed to improve dietary intake, increase daily physical activity, and improve home food safety practices, food resource management, and food security. FESMM is a curriculum package that is evidence-based and hands-on. The intervention provides interactive nutrition education sessions that were developed based on a community needs assessment of existing data showing diet and physical activity behaviors, food resource management skills, food safety practices, and food security practices among low-income, low-resource adults living in NC. The lessons in the curriculum include recipes along with physical activities that help participants learn simple solutions to eat smart and be active every day. FESMM addresses key behaviors linked to obesity by helping families learn how to increase fruit and vegetable intake, eat together as a family, reduce screen/sedentary time, control portion sizes, and limit consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. 

 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time  
Intervention Type: Direct Education 

SNAP-Ed Soccer for Success (SfS)

Soccer for Success (SfS) is a direct education intervention designed to improve fitness levels of participants, improve nutritional knowledge and behavior of participants (and their families), and improve youth development outcomes of participants. SfS helps kids establish healthy habits and develop critical life skills through trained coach-mentors. Our multifaceted model combines structured physical activity, nutritional education, family engagement resources, and coach-mentoring best practices. The nutrition component meets USDA standards. SfS lessons are taught 3 times a week for 12 or 24 weeks by trained coach-mentors. SfS’ curriculum provides coach-mentors with tools to integrate nutrition lessons into fun activities. As a result, children are constantly engaged and challenged to incrementally increase both their level of physical activity and their understanding of healthy lifestyles. To further address the social determinants of health, we use SfS as a hub for wrap-around health services. The SfS model incorporates community engagement days, featuring health resources from local community-based organization partners.

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education

The OrganWise Guys Program (OWG)

The OrganWise Guys Program (OWG) can be delivered via both direct and indirect education including PSE change interventions 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 childcare 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 in schools and during family style eating/snacking in EC Centers via daily nutrition messaging and outreach to parents. The OWG gardening curriculum helps establish gardens while children learn to grow and consume homegrown food. This curriculum focuses 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. Indirect education includes a wide variety of behavior tracking tools for use at home to reinforce key messages. All the above items can be delivered in the traditional way using physical items or via the online platform across all target audiences. 

Additionally, The OWG online component allows for projects to collect usage data from all users on the platform. Data collection reports will be available to SNAP-Ed partners which tracks/reports on total time of each session with details on books read, activity sheets/newsletters downloaded, videos watched and physical activity (via new WISERCISE! level).  This usage report can assist with your PEARS reporting.  

 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Fruit and Vegetable Consumption, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance 

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change 

Heart Smarts

Heart Smarts is a direct education, PSE change, and social marketing intervention that combines healthy food access, nutrition education, and health and social services for individuals to improve their health and reduce their risk of diet-related disease. The program offers nine lessons for use in retail environments covering topics like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, sodium, sugar-sweetened beverages and making healthy choices along with nutrition-focused tip sheets. Each lesson includes taste tests, recipes, healthy food incentive coupons* and health screenings* (for blood pressure, weight checks, and healthy lifestyle counseling and referrals). Technical assistance and training is provided to site staff and storeowners to support PSE changes including healthier stores, businesses and communities.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing, PSE Change

*These Heart Smarts components (health screenings, including blood pressure and BMI; counseling and referrals; and healthy food incentive coupons help participants choose heart-healthy items at the site) are not allowable by SNAP-Ed. Heart Smarts lessons and food tastings can be used without these additional components. Screenings and coupons can be funded by grants or partnered organizations.

FoodShare

FoodShare South Carolina is a PSE change intervention designed to improve food security and health outcomes through fresh food access and affordability. Every 2 weeks residents can order a Fresh Food Box using cash or SNAP/EBT. The program is a SNAP Healthy Bucks site (a state SNAP healthy incentives program), which allows SNAP recipients to receive a $15 healthy incentive to go towards the cost of their box. Each Fresh Food Box contains 9-11 varieties of culturally appropriate fruits and vegetables, always with a mix of more common items (e.g., apples) and less common items (e.g., radishes). A recipe card that is culturally relevant to participants and based on the produce in the box in a given week is also included. The program is situated within an academic medical center and community-based hospital system. A screening and referral process was created that links patients to FoodShare sites across the state.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Illinois Junior Chefs

Illinois Junior Chefs (IJC) is a direct education curriculum designed to improve dietary attitudes and behaviors in youth ages 8-13 through learning hands-on cooking skills and MyPlate food group education. IJC is a 10-hour cooking education program designed for five two-hour classes. Each class focuses on a food group and related cooking skills. Recipes provided let participants practice specific cooking skills for preparation of foods for the food group highlighted in each lesson. A variety of recipes are included in the curriculum as well as additional resource links for supplemental recipes. Recipe selection should be based on age-appropriate cooking tasks for the participants and culturally appropriate recipes for diverse audiences. Participants are recruited through eligible schools and community agencies. Eligible participants attend IJC classes at sites having access to running water and electricity for the purpose of hand washing, food safety, and preparing recipes that need cooking.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Other: Cooking Skills

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Together, We Inspire Smart Eating (WISE)

Together, We Inspire Smart Eating (WISE) is a direct education intervention designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in children in early education programs as well as in the home. WISE delivers developmentally appropriate food experiences and promotes behavior change through its 3 components: classroom curricula, parent engagement content, and educator training. The intervention is designed to be delivered across a 9-month term with food experiences and supporting activities executed weekly. This program creates positive changes in child and family eating behaviors that align with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations, specifically, increasing the number of servings of fruit and vegetables consumed and an increase in a variety of fruits and vegetables consumed. Social media content is available for programs interested in using the content to engage families and early childhood educators in the WISE program goals.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do It! (MEND)

Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it! (MEND) program is a direct education intervention designed to manage overweight, obesity in children 2-13 years old and their families by improving health, fitness, and self-esteem. The MEND programs combine physical activity, healthy eating, and behavior change to facilitate safe, effective weight management and lasting changes in lifestyle. Programs run for 10 weeks and the child and at least one parent or primary caregiver must attend. MEND programs help families in the following areas: 

● Mind – improving children’s self-esteem and supporting families to change their behaviors around eating and activity 

● Exercise – engaging in regular physical activity that is fun 

● Nutrition – learning about good nutrition and healthy eating 

● Do it! – taking action to make healthy lifestyle changes long term 

The newest program, Healthy Together, for children ages 6–13 years and their families, is based on MEND 7-13 but with simplified delivery and focus on critical content. Healthy Together can be delivered by one person and is ideal for smaller groups and spaces. 

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Brighter Bites

Brighter Bites is a school-based health promotion program designed to change the behavior of children and their families to prevent childhood obesity and achieve long-term health outcomes. Brighter Bites includes: a) weekly produce distribution, b) nutrition education in schools and for parents, and c) a weekly fun food recipe demonstrations and tasting experiences for children and their parents throughout the school year. Brighter Bites is implemented for up to 16 weeks during the school year and up to 8 weeks during the summer. Participating schools are also trained to implement the evidence-based Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) curriculum other evidence-based programs that promote healthy food choices and physical activity. This comprehensive approach supports the shift in the culture of each school and families within that school toward being healthier and more focused on nutrition and healthy living.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Let’s Eat Healthy: Teens (Online)

Dairy Council of California’s Let’s Eat Healthy: Teens (LEH Teens) is a direct education intervention, which consists of four online lessons that seek to improve high school students’ awareness of their food environment and the link between food and health. The lesson content is accessible online and includes a teacher guide with instructional slide presentations to inform and engage high school students through common technology platforms. The program aligns with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the California Health Education Content Standards, encouraging self-reflection, goal setting, and balanced eating habits. 

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Teen Battle Chef (TBC)

Teen Battle Chef (TBC) is a direct education and PSE change intervention designed to develop skills in nutrition, cooking, and leadership for participants and their families through cooking lessons, a PSE campaign, ongoing nutrition education, development of youth leaders, and supporting a culture of wellness in partner organizations. TBC includes eight sessions in which participants learn plant-focused recipes and cooking skills to compete in cooking battles. After eight weeks of skill development, the Teen Chefs choose one of four tracts to impact PSE change. The four tracts are bundled with the curriculum license and include School Food Ambassadors (for collaborating with schools’ food service), Special Event Headliners (for ensuring healthy options at School Events), CHEFS 4 Change (program for youth collaboration with local bodegas to support healthy ‘grab n’ go’ options), and Culinary Coaches (teaching other students healthy meal/snack strategies). The Teen Battle Chef LIVE online version allows for online instruction using an online delivery platform, such as Zoom or Google Meet.

TBC School Food Ambassadors have been effectively utilized as partners with school food service to co-develop new school menu items and promote them with demos and sampling. This active collaborative creates peer-driven motivation for more students to participate in school lunch and breakfast, which is easily measured through school food service participation rates.

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Healthy Children, Healthy Families: Parents making a difference!

The Healthy Children, Healthy Families: Parents making a difference! (HCHF) is an 8-week intervention designed to increase healthy eating and physical activity and to reduce screen time. HCHF integrates parenting and nutrition education and is delivered to parents and caregivers of children 3 to 12 years old. HCHF uses a learner-centered dialogue approach, based on the Social Cognitive Theory, to engage participants in discussions and hands-on activities. This method aims to introduce behaviors (a.k.a. Paths to Success) most likely to prevent unhealthy weight gain and chronic disease, along with relevant parenting skills (a.k.a. Keys to Success) to help participants in supporting their families’ with these behavior changes. Sessions are scripted to ensure ease of delivery and are structured using the 4A Dialogue Approach to increase participant engagement. Each of the 8 sessions focuses on a specific behavior, and provides participants an opportunity to learn and apply one or more new parenting skills. These sessions are once per week and last 1.5 hours. Additionally, each session includes tasting a healthy recipe and an “active play break” to help parents practice activities they can take home and do with their children.

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Motivating Adolescents with Technology 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

Eat Smart to Play Hard

Eat Smart to Play Hard (ESPH) is a four-week social marketing campaign in which the community collaborates to engage students, parents, teachers, school staff, and other stakeholders in a common goal to “Eat Smart” in order to “Play Hard.” This obesity prevention campaign specifically focuses on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among 8–11-year-olds in both rural and urban schools. During the campaign, students receive an activity booklet “Fun Book” that guides them through healthy eating and physical activities at home with their families. They return their Fun Book to school each week to receive a stamp from their teacher for every completed activity in order to earn incentives and a medal.  ESPH coordinators hang promotional materials throughout the school and community to support the desired behavior. At the end of the six weeks, the campaign culminates in a fun day event where students and teachers celebrate their success while enjoying healthy eating and fun physical activity.

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

Intervention Type: Social Marketing, PSE Change

One Healthy Breakfast Program

The One Healthy Breakfast Program (OHBP) is a direct education, social marketing, and PSE change intervention designed to improve home, community, and school food environments to ensure that every student starts their day with a healthy breakfast. Direct education is delivered by classroom teachers utilizing the Breakfast Learning Activities for Students and Teachers (BLAST) curriculum, an interactive lesson series that encourages students in grades 4-8 to learn behavior-changing skills through analyzing and evaluating foods and their food choices. Social marketing campaigns take place through branded promotional materials for use in schools and the community, monthly newsletters to families, and corner store social marketing to encourage students to choose healthy breakfast items. PSE change occurs through promotion of breakfast after the bell options in schools. These components are combined with community engagement to provide students and their families the tools needed to choose healthier options in the morning regardless of whether they eat at home, school, or at the corner store.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing, PSE Change

Grazing with Marty Moose

Grazing with Marty Moose (GWMM) is a youth direct education and PSE intervention designed to help 3rd grade students make healthier food and physical activity choices while encouraging schools and parents to create environments that support students in making these choices. Nutrition educators teach the 5-lesson series in classrooms and work with teachers, administration, and staff to implement classroom and school-wide PSEs. Students explore MyPlate and food groups while trying new physical activities and foods in each lesson. PSE changes are implemented at the classroom and school level to encourage healthy eating and increased physical activity of all students.

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

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

Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation)

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation) supports school and district leaders in creating and sustaining healthy schools where students – especially those from underserved communities – can thrive. 

Healthier Generation is a PSE intervention designed to create healthier school environments for students and staff. It is among the nation’s largest school-based programs improving whole child health, addressing multiple factors that lead to inadequate health and life outcomes – from physical activity (PA) and nutrition to social and emotional health and tobacco/vaping prevention. Healthier Generation leads school and district staff through the following 6– step continuous improvement process: 1) convene a School or District Wellness Committee, 2) assess the school health environment using the Thriving Schools Integrated Assessment (TSIA), 3) develop an action plan tailored to school or district priorities based on what is important and achievable, 4) explore Healthier Generation resources and tools, 5) take action to implement the plan and achieve school or district goals 6) celebrate success and monitor progress. Healthier Generation facilitates the development of partnerships during step one and provides support to schools to implement evidence-based policies and practices related to nutrition and PA. Schools document their need and readiness for change in step two by completing the TSIA. The sixth step addresses program recognition by celebrating schools’ success through Healthier Generation’s national recognition program.  

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Eagle Adventure

The Eagle Adventure (EA) was designed to address the need for culturally relevant SNAP-Ed programming to prevent type 2 diabetes in Indian Country. EA was developed using the CDC Eagle Book series as the central theme. Through this series of four books, wise animal characters are brought to life. Mr. Eagle, Miss Rabbit and a clever trickster, Coyote, engage Rain That Dances and his young friends in the joy of being physically active, eating healthy foods and learning from their elders about traditional ways of being healthy. Throughout the program, youth and their families learn that type 2 diabetes can be prevented through healthful dietary and physical activity (PA) choices. Students in grades 1-3 are introduced to the program through the EA play, which embraces traditions of Native American storytelling. Students participate in hands-on activities and food experiences in each of the lessons.

Eagle Adventure (EA) was designed after formative evaluation with Native American families in Oklahoma.  The formative evaluation was mixed methods and included methods such as focus groups, surveys and photovoice to identify what health and nutrition information was most important to families. EA is based on the Eagle Books published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The books and EA are based on traditions of Native American storytelling and cultures but speak to all children. EA reinforces making healthy choices to grow-up healthy and prevent the development of type 2 diabetes. EA uses the socioecological model as a framework for program components and social cognitive theory constructs to address behavior change. Since 2010, over 10,000 students have participated in EA in partnership with numerous tribes throughout Oklahoma. 

EA includes the following social marketing components: school and radio announcements, newspaper messages, place-based signage, and social media components to extend healthful messages beyond the classroom to community settings. Not Our Destiny (www.NotOurDestiny.com) is a complementary intergenerational social marketing campaign that is asset-based and shares stories of health from Native Americans who engage in healthful activities.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time, Other: preventing type 2 Diabetes

Intervention Type: All: Direct Education, Social Marketing, 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.

Go Wild with Fruits & Veggies!

Go Wild with Fruits & Veggies (Go Wild) is a nutrition education program designed to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables and increase physical activity through direct education and PSE level intervention. Go Wild can be used in curriculum for 3rd through 5th grade, and  the social-ecological model to most effectively influence food and physical activity behaviors. Direct education to students consists of seven 45-60 minutes lessons. The intervention uses a multi-level approach to effect the individual child, family, and school environment to make healthy choices. At the school food service level, many school sites have adopted the Smarter Lunchroom Movement, which addresses environmental barriers to healthy eating in school dining halls and kitchens. Additional classroom activities reinforce nutrition messages between scheduled classroom lessons. Throughout the program, animal characters are used to reinforce key nutrition concepts and drive the theme of the lesson. To get children engaged, children learn about the featured animal in the introduction to the lesson. Animal characters are used to market the program in the cafeteria (posters and animal tracks) and on take home materials.

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Supporting Health and Activity in Preschool Environments (SHAPES)

Supporting Health and Activity in Preschool Environments (SHAPES) is a direct education intervention designed to increase young children’s physical activity (PA) levels by teaching the importance of adequate PA for healthy development and training educators to provide opportunities for PA throughout the day by adapting existing curricula. SHAPES addresses SNAP-Ed outcomes by providing teachers with strategies to increase PA and reduce sedentary behavior without additional resources.

Target Behavior: Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time

Intervention Type: Direct Education

VeggieBook, a mobile app for Android and iOS smartphones (VB)

VeggieBook is a social marketing and direct education intervention app that is designed to help users choose customized recipes and healthy eating tips which ultimately lead to increased vegetable-based preparation for meals at home. The app invites a user to create a new VeggieBook or SecretsBook. VeggieBooks are sets of recipes, each set built around 1 of 10 vegetables. A series of questions posed by the app helps users select recipes and food preparation tips of interest. Recipes use simple ingredients most households have and have been tested for user-appeal. SecretsBooks are 5 sets of illustrated ideas about food use and acquisition–Secrets to Better Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Shopping. The app’s emphasis on users’ choices promotes just-in-time learning.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing

FNV

The FNV Campaign is a social marketing and PSE change intervention that aims to present fruits and vegetables in a way that is both fun and cool, ultimately shifting attitudes, behavior and social norms relative to healthy eating. The objectives of the FNV Campaign are to create positive attitudes toward fruits and vegetables and to drive increased consumption of fruits and vegetables in targeted communities amongst SNAP eligible audiences. Targeted at millennials, the FNV campaign uses humor and the power of local and/or national celebrity to voluntarily shift consumer behavior toward healthier dietary choices. The campaign’s recommended approach includes surround sound marketing through billboards, retail, and transit media placements and in advertising buys on social and digital media, but it can be customized and tailored based on individual campaign needs.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Social Marketing, PSE Change

Common Threads: Small Bites Program

The Small Bites Program is a direct education intervention designed to increase nutrition knowledge, vegetable consumption, and variety of vegetables consumed. The curriculum teaches students about nutrition and healthy cooking through a series of eight (or more) 1-hour lessons combining nutrition and knife-free cooking. In every lesson, students prepare a healthy snack, using recipes that meet USDA Guidelines, and provide opportunities to learn about and reinforce nutrition concepts and cooking skills. The lessons are grade-level banded, suitable for the in-school or after-school setting and are designed to support core content learning in math, English Language Arts, and science.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Linking Lessons for Schools

Linking Lessons for Schools (LL-S) is a direct education resource designed to improve food behaviors with a focus on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption of youth in grades 7-12. LL-S can be delivered by classroom teachers, guest nutrition educators, or teacher/educator teams. This resource was created to meet the need for short, interactive lessons that could be integrated into core subjects (it “links” nutrition to other subjects).

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Increasing Vegetables and Fruit, Other: Local Foods, Fast Food, Breakfast, Vegetarian Eating, Energy Balance

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness (CHFFF)

Choose Health: Food, Fun, & Fitness (CHFFF) is a direct education curriculum for 8-15 year olds (3rd-8th graders) that uses experiential learning to teach healthy eating and active play. Designed for use by paraprofessional and professional educators in a variety of settings, the goal is to improve the following research-based behaviors for preventing obesity and chronic disease: eating more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains; consuming fewer sweetened beverages and high-fat, high-sugar foods; and increasing active play. The curriculum is available in both print and virtual versions.

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education

iCook 4-H: Cooking, Eating, and Playing Together

The iCook 4-H Program is a direct education intervention designed to reach the following objectives: increase cooking skills and culinary self-efficacy, improve openness to new foods, increase frequency and/or quality of meal time with family members, and decrease sedentary time. It is intended for out-of-school settings with the goal of promoting healthy lifestyles for 9- and 10-year-old youth and the adult who prepares their meals. Grounded in the Social Cognitive Theory, interactions among youth, adults, and leaders provide opportunities for observational learning, reciprocal role modeling, and building self-efficacy.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time, Other: Family engagement/communication and goal setting

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Integrated Nutrition Education Program

The Integrated Nutrition Education Program (INEP) is a multi-level comprehensive direct education and policy, system, and environment (PSE) change intervention designed to increase fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity levels in children and their parents and to reduce the risk of obesity and chronic disease. INEP’s programming consists of classroom nutrition education and physical activity lessons, take-home recipes, newsletters, and parent nights designed to combat the rising rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and other negative health outcomes. INEP’s programming is designed to positively influence healthy eating habits for students and empower them to take what they learn in school back home to their families at no cost to participants.

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

The Children’s Healthy Living (CHL) Program

The Children’s Healthy Living Program (CHL) is a direct education, social marketing, and PSE change intervention designed to help children ages 2-8 in pacific communities decrease sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake, increase water intake, increase fruit and vegetable intake, decrease recreational screen time, increase physical activity, and increase the duration of sleep. The CHL toolkit has 4 functions that partners can choose from: 1) strengthen and implement school wellness policies, 2) partner and advocate for environmental change, 3) promote the CHL message, and 4) train trainers (capacity building) that address healthy behaviors at multiple levels of the social ecological model. Nineteen specific activities are recommended under each of the 4 functions. These activities promote PSE changes through the development of community strengths and interests. 

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing, PSE Change

The Early Childhood Program Wellness Policy Workbook

The Early Childhood Program Wellness Policy Workbook is designed to promote the adoption of wellness policies and implementation of best practices at the center level to create cultures of health within child care facilities, which positively impact early childhood providers’ knowledge and skills about healthy eating and physical activity (PA), provide tools and resources for child care facilities to help parents and families increase healthy eating and PA, and expose children to healthy foods and PA at a young age. It helps centers learn how to approach these issues and embed best practices into their ongoing activities to create a culture of health and wellness within their environments.

Target Behavior: Breastfeeding, Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time, Other: staff wellness

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Kids Cook!®

Kids Cook!® is a direct education program designed to encourage children and families to adopt healthier behaviors through hands-on preparation of a variety of nutrient-rich foods paired with daily physical activity. Program activities use an integrated curriculum format that provides opportunities for interdisciplinary learning. Hands-on methods increase acceptance of a variety of foods while modeling healthy food choices.  Additional benefits include improving nutrition, strengthens family ties through shared food preparation and the enjoyment of sitting down to eat together.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education

CookShop

CookShop is a core nutrition education program of Food Bank For New York City, providing low-income children and adults with the knowledge and tools to adopt and enjoy a healthy diet and active lifestyle on a limited budget. With hands-on workshops reaching thousands of New Yorkers across all five boroughs, CookShop teaches nutrition and physical activity information, as well as cooking skills, fostering enthusiasm for fresh, affordable fruits, vegetables and other whole foods.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE change

Food Hero

Food Hero is a multi-channel social marketing campaign designed to change family and community behaviors.  Food Hero includes an extensive evaluation process. The program is designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income Oregonians, and components of the campaign have been used widely in other states and countries. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change, Social Marketing

EatFresh

EatFresh.org is mobile-friendly website that was created for the SNAP-Ed population and the organizations that serve them. It provides practical resources and encouragement for individuals with varying levels of digital literacy, internet access, health awareness and culinary skills. EatFresh.org is a stand-alone indirect education resource, an extender for direct education interventions, and a useful tool for a variety of PSE strategies. Partners throughout California use EatFresh.org as a tool to direct their participants to healthy recipes during nutrition workshops, to look up preparation and storage tips for food received at food banks, and to apply for SNAP/Calfresh.  They promote the website by distributing recipe cards at health fairs and other indirect events and refer clients to the EatFresh.org Mini Course as a flexible direct education resource. The EatFresh.org Mini Course is a free online direct education course that features 15 SNAP-Ed self-paced topics that can be completed in any order. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH)

The Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) is a PSE change and direct education intervention aiming to prevent childhood obesity in school-age children. The two main behavioral targets are helping children identify and choose healthy foods and increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). CATCH’s training and curriculum materials provide the information and resources teachers need to implement strategies to improve child health.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Cooking Matters at the Store

Cooking Matters at the Store is a free program that works with families to stretch their food budgets so their children get healthy meals at home. Cooking Matters at the Store is a conversation about skills that helps adults learners get the most nutrition for their food dollars.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Healthy Kindergarten Initiative

The Healthy Kindergarten Initiative (KI) is a direct education and PSE Change intervention that includes an integrated, holistic approach to educating children and their caregivers about making healthy food choices and being physically active. Education is coupled with access; families are connected to local, healthy foods through innovative ways and community partnerships. Lessons integrating nutrition and healthy habits were developed to fit Pennsylvania educational standards; however, they can be adapted to meet the educational standards for other states. Learning how food grows and who grows it in combination with frequent food tastings and hands-on gardening may help increase fruit and vegetable consumption among young children. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Out of School Nutrition and Physical Activity (OSNAP)

The Out of School Nutrition and Physical Activity (OSNAP) Initiative is a PSE change intervention designed to increase healthy nutrition and physical activity and reduce screen time for children, including the frequency with which water is served during snack at afterschool programs. By promoting water, the OSNAP Initiative decreases the caloric impact of beverages served in afterschool programs. OSNAP, through its interactive website, www.osnap.org, provides afterschool program staff and organizational leaders with resources to improve their program practices and policies related to healthy foods, drinks, and physical activity.  One component of the OSNAP initiative focuses on providing access to free drinking water at snack time for children in afterschool programs.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type:  PSE Change

Youth Participatory Action Research Projects (YPAR)

Youth-led Participatory Action Research Projects (YPAR) engage youth in projects that address and promote nutrition and physical activity issues in their community. YPAR aims to empower youth and achieve policy, systems, and environmental change efforts related to health, nutrition, and physical activity. An adult ally works with the youth to help mentor, support, and facilitate the youth team. Through YPAR, youth engage in leadership, critical thinking, problem solving, strategizing skills, and service learning to address their target issue related to nutrition and physical activity. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Eating Smart • Being Active

Eating Smart • Being Active is a direct education healthy eating, active living intervention designed for paraprofessional nutrition educators to use when teaching low-income families to learn healthy lifestyle choices. The curriculum consists of nine core lessons, designed to be taught in order, and three supplemental infant and maternal lessons designed to be taught to pregnant and breastfeeding women. The teaching techniques in the lesson plans of Eating Smart • Being Active are based on adult learning principles, dialogue-based learning and learner-centered education. 

Target Behavior: Breastfeeding, Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type:  Direct Education

Eat Well & Keep Moving

Eat Well & Keep Moving is a direct education and PSE change intervention designed to equip children with the knowledge, skills, and supportive environment they need in order to lead healthier lives by choosing nutritious diets and being physically active. Designed for fourth- and fifth-grade students, its six interlinked components—classroom education, physical education, school-wide promotional campaigns, food services, staff wellness, and parent and community involvement—work together to create a supportive environment that promotes the learning of lifelong good habits, helps academic, physical education, and health education teachers guide upper elementary school students to make healthier choices while building skills.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Bienestar Health Program

The Bienestar Health Program is a direct education, culturally tailored school-based diabetes mellitus prevention program for low-income Mexican-American children. There are four components to Bienestar: 1) health and physical education classes, 2) an after-school health club, 3) family activities, and 4) a food service component. These components cohesively address the individual, relevant social groups, culture, and health promotion environment that support behaviors consistent with diabetes mellitus prevention. The Bienestar Health Program is delivered over 7 months during the school year.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Cooking Matters

Cooking Matters is helping end childhood hunger by inspiring families to make healthy, affordable food choices. Cooking Matters teaches participants to shop smarter, use nutrition information to make healthier choices and cook delicious, affordable meals. Cooking Matters provides professional-level curricula and instructional materials, and evaluation, while local program partners provide hands-on, grassroots-level resources, program customizations and relationships that are best addressed on the local level.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: Direct Education

Shaping Healthy Choices Program (SHCP)

The Shaping Healthy Choices Program (SHCP) is a direct education and PSE change intervention designed to improve children’s health through a school-based, multicomponent approach. The program consists of 4 components: 1) Nutrition Education and Promotion, 2) Family and community partnerships, 3) Foods available on the school campus, and 4) School wellness policy. Program activities include nutrition education, cooking demonstrations, family newsletters, instructional school garden, salad bar, regional produce, school-site wellness committees, and community health fairs. Activities and programs were designed to operate on multiple levels of the Social Ecological Model (SEM) framework, integrated principles from Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), and a program evaluation was conducted. The goal of the program is to improve child diet and physical activity behaviors to prevent obesity.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Rethink Your Drink

The Rethink Your Drink Campaign is an evidence-based educational campaign designed to inform users about the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and increases in rates of overweight and obesity. The program provides nutrition education and recommendations for improving overall health, but specifically emphasizes reducing intake of soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks.  Social marketing as well as direct education materials including curricula and lesson plans, posters, handouts, fact sheets, and recipe cards can be implemented in school and community-based settings. The program aims to educate low-income children and adults about healthy drink options, specifically promoting the consumption of water.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing

SPARK

SPARK has numerous evidence-based programs designed to improve health that target areas such as physical education, after school, early childhood and coordinated school health. SPARK aims to develop healthy lifestyles, movement knowledge, motor skills, and social and personal skills. SPARK programs include a package of highly active curriculum, training for teachers, extensive follow-up support and content-matched equipment that help to foster environmental and behavioral changes. SPARK curriculum is aligned with numerous state and national standards.

Target Behavior: Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing, PSE Change

School Nutrition Policy Initiative (SNPI)

The School Nutrition Policy Initiative (SNPI) was a policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change intervention designed to improve prevalence of childhood obesity in school age children in Philadelphia.  Components of the SNPI included 1) school self-assessment, 2) nutrition education, 3) nutrition policy, 4) social marketing, and 5) parent outreach. The goals of SNPI were to change the school food environment to promote healthy eating and increase physical activity and to provide teachers with training and tools to implement classroom-based nutrition education. The primary policy initiatives implemented were 1) replacing all sugar-sweetened beverages in school vending machines and cafeterias with water, low-fat milk, and 100% milk, 2) creating a snack policy that restricts candy sales in schools and places guidelines on the snacks served and sold, and 3) providing 10 hours of nutrition education training for teachers to support the integration of 50 hours of interdisciplinary nutrition education per year per classroom.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change, Social Marketing

Salad Bars to Schools (SB2S)

The national Salad Bars to Schools (SB2S) initiative is a PSE change intervention designed to provide salad bars to U.S. schools so that every child—from elementary school, to middle school, to high school—has daily access to fresh fruits and vegetables. When offered healthy food choices, children respond by trying new items, incorporating greater variety into their diets, and increasing their daily intake of fruits and vegetables. Through these early, positive experiences, students are better prepared for a lifetime of healthy eating. SB2S was founded by the Chef Ann Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, United Fresh Start Foundation, and Whole Foods Market in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Pick a better snack™

Pick a better snackTM is a direct education and social marketing intervention that aims to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and promote daily physical activity among children. The program is designed to influence children’s preference for fruits and vegetables and the snacks they request at home. Nutrition educators deliver monthly lessons and fruit and vegetable tasings during the school day to kindergarten through third grade classes. Family newsletters and health-themed bingo cards are sent home to engage parents. Two complimentary community-based social marketing campaigns, Pick a better snack and Play Your Way, further support healthy eating and physical activity behavior change.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing

PE-Nut™

PE-Nut™ is a direct education and PSE change intervention that uses a whole-school approach to motivate students, parents, and educators to be physically active and eat healthier. Physical educators, classroom teachers and school administrators work together to improve nutrition and physical activity in K–5 school settings. The program consists of several components: quality physical education for students, nutrition education in the classrooms, take-home “healthy book bags”; daily school announcements; school and family newsletters; and parent engagement events. The overall goal of PE-Nut™ is to improve the school nutrition environment and affect healthy behavior change, including:

Individual Behavior Changes:

  • Increase participation in a physically active lifestyle.
  • Increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free or low-fat milk or dairy products.
  • Balance caloric intake from food and beverages with calories expended (upper grades).
  • Try new food.
  • Choose healthy snacks.
  • Wash hands before eating.

Classroom and School Environment:

  • Healthy Classroom Parties
  • Non-food rewards
  • School staff and Student role modeling
  • Healthy classroom and school wide messaging

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

ReFresh

The ReFresh curriculum is a direct education intervention designed to encourage students to consume more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and to be more physically active. Composed of a series of eight nutrition education units, ReFresh is designed for implementation in fourth and fifth grade classrooms throughout the school year from October through May. Lessons align with Common Core courses such as math and language arts and offer opportunities for recipe preparation, taste testing, discussion, and reflection. Throughout the ReFresh curriculum, the following behaviorally-focused messages are emphasized:

  • Make half your plates fruits and vegetables
  • Make at least half your grains whole grains
  • Increase physical activity
  • Maintain calorie balance

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education

BE Physically Active 2Day (BEPA 2.0)

BEPA 2.0 is a direct education intervention with added PSE components designed to integrate physical activity (PA) and nutrition concepts through education and activity in K-5th grade school settings. Nutrition and PA concepts are integrated into active games through an approach that emphasizes physical literacy and promotes healthy eating. BEPA 2.0 is aligned to national physical education (PE) and health education (HE) standards making it a desirable resource for school partners looking for curricula that enable teachers to address required competencies through active games. BEPA 2.0 provides educators with materials and activity ideas that can be used in and outside of the classroom and before, during, or after school to increase children’s PA time. BEPA 2.0 is optimized via a PSE approach, which includes teacher trainings, wellness policy supports, and resourcing schools or classrooms with BEPA 2.0 Toolkits. These resources enable policy and systems changes to promote healthy behaviors in school environments.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program

Farm to school is a Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) change and direct education intervention designed to improve access to local foods in pre-k to 12th grade school settings and provides education opportunities that encourage healthy eating behaviors. Farm to school empowers children and their families to make informed food choices while strengthening the local economy and contributing to vibrant communities. Each farm to school program is unique, but often combines elements of local procurement or serving food from local producers in meals and snacks, alongside food, nutrition, and agriculture education in the classroom and beyond, such as the cafeteria and school garden. 

Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) backing for farm to school make farm to school practices the norm in classrooms and cafeterias throughout the year. Policy efforts focus on integrating farm to school supports into organizational statements and positions, such as procurement policies, wellness policies, and resolutions. Systems change include those that make organizational procedures and programs more supportive of farm to school. Examples include hiring farm to school or garden staff, partnering with distributors to carry and label local product, creating a grant program to fund school gardens, and building local or State-wide farm to school coalitions. Environmental changes are observable in your physical or social surroundings. Farm to school environmental supports may include, but are not limited to, local foods promotional and marketing materials, school gardens/farms, and food systems courses and classes. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change

Classroom Energizer Teacher Training Workshop

The Classroom Energizer Teacher Training Workshop, led by a SNAP-Ed educator, is a PSE intervention designed to prepare classroom teachers to lead short bursts (2-10 minute breaks) of physical activity (PA) in their classroom, thus changing the environment in which children learn. The training was adapted with permission from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The Classroom Energizer PA breaks are integrated with academic concepts to reinforce classroom work through movement in grades K-5 and increase the daily minutes of PA for students during the school day.

Target Behavior: Physical Activity

Intervention Type: PSE Change

School Physical Activity & Nutrition-Environment Tool (SPAN-ET)

The School Physical Activity and Nutrition Environment Tool (SPAN-ET) is a PSE Change tool used by school sector stakeholders to assess elementary and middle/high school resources and readiness to improve nutrition and physical activity (PA) environments, suggest appropriate improvement strategies, score and measure outcomes resulting from environmentally-based treatments. The elementary SPAN-ET includes 28 items-Area of Interest and middle/high HSPAN-ET includes 29 items-Areas of Interest in two main component categories, PA and nutrition, and considers the policy, situational, and physical environment within each component. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Pick it! Try it! Like it! (PTL)

Pick it! Try it! Like it! (PTL) is a direct education and social marketing intervention which aims to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables by providing consumer information on selecting and preparing fresh produce. PTL materials are filled with tips for selecting, exploring, and cooking a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Factual information complements simple, healthy, and tested recipes. Integrated lessons with food preparation activities assists with increasing knowledge and skills for all ages. Colorful fact sheets, recipe cards, and educational videos provide educators and families with fun, engaging tools to enhance any dietary curriculum in a variety of settings.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing 

Healthy Behaviors Initiative (HBI)

The Healthy Behaviors Initiative (HBI) is an after school (AS) program designed to enable and recognize on-site staff to offer practical, user-friendly and effective nutrition, physical activity (PA), and food security intervention activities. HBI is a multi-level effort for the children, site staff, sponsoring organizations, and the multi-county Superintendent regions to complement in-school and community resources. A key to success in the infrastructure is the opportunity for AS programs to become certified by the Center for Collaborative Solutions as a HBI Learning Center. Learning Centers provide modeling, peer support, mentoring, and exchange among AS sites in their geographic areas.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating; Physical Activity

Intervention Type: PSE Change

Michigan Harvest of the Month (MiHOTM)

Michigan Harvest of the Month™ (HOTM) is a multi-level intervention designed to increase consumption of and access to fruits and vegetables; link child-focused nutrition education in schools with adult-focused supports in community-based food access settings; increase consumption of locally grown produce by connecting growers to their communities in school, child care, worksite, retail, farmers market, health care, and emergency food settings. HOTM features ready-to-go supplemental nutrition education materials that can easily be integrated into the core curriculum and are aligned on the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, Social Marketing, PSE Change

Power Play! Campaign, School Idea & Resource Kit (SIRK)

The Power Play! Campaign, School Idea & Resource Kit (SIRK) is a community-based, social marketing initiative administered by local health departments and implemented in schools. The Power Play! Campaign is designed to improve children’s short-term health and also reduce their long-term risk of chronic diseases—especially cancer, heart disease, and obesity—by increasing fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity (PA) among ethnically diverse, low-income children. The Power Play! Campaign implements activities and messaging in environments where children live, learn, and play. It includes both school and afterschool models that provide low-resource sites with free nutrition education lessons and PA energizers, cafeteria-based promotions, and youth engagement projects.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change, Social Marketing

Text2BHealthy

Text2BHealthy is a social marketing and direct education text message-based intervention designed to stimulate positive behavior change in parents with respect to grocery shopping habits, fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity. Text2BHealthy engages low-income parents of elementary school children by sending text messages which link parents to their school and community.  Parents receive about 2 text messages per week connecting parents with nutrition education in the classroom, identifying community events related to nutrition and physical activity that are free or low-cost, highlighting grocery store specials/recipes and physical activity ideas to try at home with their family.

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change, Social Marketing

Cooking with Kids BIG little Project

Cooking with Kids BIG little Project is a school-based food nutrition education curriculum program designed to educate and empower children and families to make healthy food choices through hands-on learning with fresh, affordable foods from diverse cultural traditions.  The program uses three nutrition education and obesity prevention approaches: direct education, multi-level interventions at multiple complementary organizational and institutional levels, and community and public health approaches to improve nutrition. Cooking with Kids BIG little Project includes integrated curriculum guides (bilingual and grade-specific) with cooking and tasting lessons, how-to-videos, recipes, and other resources. Cooking with Kids, Inc. provides nutrition education in SNAP-Ed qualifying public schools and supports community and public health approaches, including the development of teaching kitchens in schools and the support of Farm to School and Child Nutrition Program staff training. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating

Intervention Type: Direct Education, PSE Change