Publication/Revision Year of most recent version: 2017

Text2LiveHealthy

The Text2LiveHealthy (T2LH) intervention is a direct education and social marketing intervention designed to increase family consumption of fruits and vegetables, increase physical activity among the entire family, and increase family consumption of water while decreasing consumption of sugary beverages. 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 economically disadvantaged families across Colorado. There are four text message cycles in Year 1 with each cycle containing approximately 30 core texts that address the following themes: fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity and sedentary behaviors, sugar-sweetened beverages, and water consumption. Each cycle contains approximately seven to eight core messages and two to three evaluation messages. In general, 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. In Year 2, participants receive one text per week with a focus on maintaining behavior changes. In Year 3, participants receive weekly messages that focus on mindful eating, stress reduction and living an active lifestyle. In addition to the intervention messages, participants receive thematic messages based on the time of year as well as local messages for resources, for example farmer’s markets and Double Up Food Bucks and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). 

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

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

Food Talk: Better U

The Food Talk: Better U (FTBU) curriculum is a direct nutrition education and obesity prevention curriculum taught by paraprofessionals in a classroom setting and focuses on healthy weight management tailored for SNAP-Ed eligible adult Georgians. FTBU includes both nutrition and physical activity (PA) components as weight management and obesity prevention strategies and helps participants increase portion control, decrease intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, make small healthy “shifts” in everyday food choices, and increase PA consistent with the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, MyPlate guidance, and 2018 PA Guidelines for Americans. The curriculum is comprised of a series of four, 90-minute direct education classes that include the following elements: interactive learning activities, interactive sharing among participants, guided PA, cooking demonstrations and recipe tastings, goal setting, and food and/or PA tracking homework.

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

Intervention Type: Direct Education

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

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

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

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

HEALth MAPPS™ for Mapping Healthy Eating Active Living Assets using Participatory Photographic Surveys

HEALth MAPPS™ is a SNAP-Ed facilitated, community-engaged, socio–environmental determinants of health (SDOH) discovery and learning intervention. HEALth MAPPS™ mobilizes community sectors and residential stakeholders to identify target audiences’ lived experience of place-based resources, and to intervene with PSE strategies to increase easy access to healthy eating and physical activity (HEAL) environmental supports. HEALth MAPPS™ engages people in participatory action research (PAR) to accomplish two objectives: (1) document community/neighborhood SDOH environmental assets that residents experience as helping or hindering their behaviors and patterns; (2) assess community/neighborhood resources and readiness to plan and implement local policy, systems, and environmental strategies to support and sustain healthy lifestyle behaviors among targeted youth and adult populations.  The MAPPS™ method integrates participatory photography and community mapping using global positioning system (GPS) technology, and residents’ voiced perceptions of their community’s socio-environmental determinants to explore, understand, and improve the culture and context for health equity. 

Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity

Intervention Type: PSE Change