The HEAL Collaborative compiled Promising Practice information from throughout the region to share innovative ideas, events, and activities that our members are doing. Information will be added on a regular basis, so be sure to check back.

If you have a Promising Practice you would like to share, please complete the "Promising Practices Form" on the right and e-mail to Dana Fields-Johnson at DFieldsJohnson@healthedcouncil.org.

Youth Programs

Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento Ensure Nutritious Foods and Nutrition Education in Clubs

Nutrition Decathlon

School Events/Activities

Grant High School's Environmental Organization's (GEO) Garden Based Business Education

Folsom Cordova Unified School District: Healthier School Meals (Excerpted from California Project LEAN (2003) Successful Students Through Healthy Food Policies Resource Guide)

Davis Joint Unified School District Crunch Lunch (Excerpted from the publication, Agrarian Advocate Summer 2001. Community Alliance with Family Farmers.)

Assesment of Enviornment

South Stockton- Assessment of food resources in all convenience stores, small markets, and supermarkets in 4 of the lowest income census tracts.

Connecting Schools to Farm Fresh Goods

Local Produce Link (LPL) Project

---

Youth Programs

Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento Ensure Nutritious Foods and Nutrition Education in Clubs

The policy/resolution was adopted January 22, 2003.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento is a community service organization that provides youth development programs through a variety of activities including education, technology, athletics, health & life skills, social recreation, and nutrition. The agency serves children ages 6-17.

The goal: Adopting the policy was to ensure each member has access to nutritious meals, snacks, and programs that allow members to gain an understanding of nutrition, and the importance to their health and well being.

Action Steps

• Staff from the Power Play! Campaign provided education, and presented data that was relevant to their agencies target population
• Sample policy language was provided to the Boys and Girls Clubs
• School gardening projects
• The Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors met and agreed to sign policy/resolution to support future changes within the organization
• Additional resources/support
• Initially the support of the Board chair, and executive director of agency conversing on a continuous basis
• Referral of grants/resources that provide funding to support healthy food purchases
• On-site staff at agency to ensure policy/resolution compliance
• Financial support for garden education

Results of efforts/sustainability

• The policy has been in existence over three years now
• Adoption of policy has encouraged the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento to deny signage of exclusive soda contracts (current contract at one site only has one year remaining! Yes!)
• There are currently no vending machines at two of the three locations, and the existing vending machine at the one location offers at least 50% healthy options for their members
• Healthy fundraising efforts continue to support policy
• Development of garden onsite is used as a vehicle for nutrition education, physical activity promotion, entrepreneurship, and building self-esteem

Lessons Learned

• Follow up with site on consistent basis to determine if additional support/technical assistance is needed
• Provide more recognition of BGC organizational efforts that support nutrition education and physical activity so other agencies can see the positive aspects of adopting policy

back to top

Nutrition Decathlon

The Health Education Council designed the Nutrition Olympics Toolkit in 1999 in response to a need to integrate youth education about fruits and vegetables with the importance of physical activity in an exciting and inviting way for children and youth. The Toolkit was designed for use by teachers and community youth organizations to actively engage elementary school age youth in hands-on learning experiences reaching over half a million children, and youth. Since inception Nutrition Olympics Toolkit has gained wide spread use and has resonated extremely well with schools and communities throughout California, hence the Nutrition Decathlon Toolkit was designed representing the new, and expanded toolkit enhanced with support material, links to California Curriculum Standards, and evaluation tools. The toolkit is a vehicle to promote a healthy lifestyle for children and their families.

Action Steps

• Formed a committee comprised of representation from a variety of venues associated with the issues of childhood overweight, and inactivity (ie) PE specialist, Curriculum Director, Physical Education Consultant, Teachers, nurses, parents, afterschool program directors, registered dietitian, etc.
• Met on a consistent basis to determine necessary components toolkit should include to be most beneficial to audience
• Pilot Tested the toolkit revisions with existing partners
• Conducted a press conference to debut new toolkit to highlight links to standards, success rates, evaluation tools and cd rom components

Additional Resources

• Financial support to design equipment to provide to partnering agencies
• Solicited local service organizations, small grants, etc. to potentially provide funding suppor (ie) (Soroptimist of Sacramento was a significant supporter)

Lessons Learned

• Pilot testing can prove insightful and critical to effectiveness in developing a useful tool, and determining audience
• Tools should be developed as flexible as possible so the audience can be creative in terms of obtaining resources to effectively conduct Nutrition Decathlon activity
• Offering training on toolkit usage will maximize results of audience
• Providing a set of equipment for use among partners is helpful for those with limited resources

Is the Project Sustained

• The Nutrition Decathlon Toolkit will continue to be utilized, and offered as a resource to partnering schools, community youth organizations, and various health agencies. With heightened interest to locate resources that can be utilized in diverse populations, and settings (indoors, outside, etc.) the Nutrition Decathlon provides the opportunity to reach thousands of children, youth and their caregivers with an important message through hands on activities and education. Presentations and trainings will continue to be offered to existing coalitions, task forces, teachers, PTA's, youth leaders, health educators, and alike.

For more information, contact:
Kacy Rodriguez
Health Education Council
916.556.3344

back to top

---

School Events/Activites

Grant High School's Environmental Organization's (GEO) Garden Based Business Education

Students at Grant High School Come from many diverse backgrounds and live in one of the most limited-resource neighborhoods in Sacramento. Although many of the neighborhood residents have a cultural history of gardening, major grocery stores cannot be found within a 2 mile radius of the center of the neighborhood. The food stores that are present offer primarily pre-packaged, less nutritious products, and limited produce. In the late 1990's a serried of neighborhood surveys and the funding opportunities gave birth to a garden based education program on the campus of Grant High School. This program continues to be a youth-led program that works on entrepreneurial garden and community beautification projects. GEO trains youth in horticulture, business and landscape design principles so they have the skills and knowledge to obtain employment, access higher education and actively improve the community.

Students at Grant High School and UC Davis Master's Students initiated the program, with the financial backing of the Mutual Assistance Network of Del Paso Heights, a local non profit. The program is now funded through the school district and a small number of grants.

In 2003 students began a salsa and pasta sauce business, contracting with local growers and a small bottler. They worked with a food scientist to develop the recipe, conducted taste tests and began marketing their products under their own label. The sauces are being sold at local Sacramento and Davis stores where students conduct taste tests and promotions. Students have learned all aspects of business and manufacturing, and they gain confidence and presentation skills.

The group has encountered many logistical barriers, in coordinating the production of a product that consists of so many ingredients and processing steps. Some of these barriers have been particularly challenging as students graduate and gain other commitments that prevent them from being involved in the entire process. The timeline moved slower than expected, and although students hoped that sales would begin in the spring of 2003, the product was not promoted until early 2004.

As new students enroll in GEO, the program will continue to evolve to represent their interest and needs. The fundamentals of the program, garden-based business education, will continue and students will continue being physically active as they learn how to raise nutritious vegetables using organic methods.

For more informaiton, contact:
Ann Marie Kennedy
Grant Union High School - West Campus
916.286.1245
www.grant.k12.ca.us/CurriculumPrograms/GrantGarden

back to top

Folsom Cordova Unified School District: Healthier School Meals (Excerpted from California Project LEAN (2003) Successful Students Through Healthy Food Policies Resource Guide)

For Several Years, the FCUSD Food Service Department was relying on high-fat and sugar-laden fast foods, frozen foods, snack items and venting machine contracts to feed students in the district. The department was operating in the red and failing to provide students with nutritious foods. A new food service director, Al Schieder, stepped in and made the most radical changes in the department's history. Determined to steer school nutrition programs through changes necessary to promote the health of children in the district, the department adopted a new philosophy, adapted to cultural changes and sought to maintain nutritional integrity and fiscal viability.

Prior to the changes, students eligible for free or reduced price meals stood in one line to receive their meal while others lined up separately to choose among items such as burgers, fries and pizza. At Cordova High one of the lower income high schools in the district, only 125 of the 500 students eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch were eating it because it was demeaning to stand in the e line, clearly identified for the needy.

"When schools make need students stand in a separate line or sell Domino's pizza that they can't afford, they discriminate against the poor kids," said Schieder. "I believe if we humiliate a teenager on school grounds, the child is scarred for life."

The FSD Eliminated junk food, soda and a la carte sales in the cafeteria. A variety of fresh school meals were provided that met USDA nutrition standards, including a variety of lunch salads, lower fat pepperoni and cheese pizza, sandwiches, homemade pasta, wraps, teriyaki chicken rice bowls, sushi rolls and noodle bowls.

One of the older high school cafeterias as renovated to create food stations by investing in stainless steel carts with red awnings at a cost of $50,000. The Business Department gave the Food Service Department a loan that was paid back in 5 years. Palm-sized computerized keypads were installed where students could punch in their ID numbers and pay for their lunch. Some students prepaid for their lunch and it is deducted out of their account, while others get a free lunch anonymously. Students have a choice of entrȥ, piece of fruit, and low fat or non-fat flavored milk for $2.50.

Cordova High School used to sell 125 entrees daily to its 1,850 students and now sells 800. Folsom High School used to sell 85 entrees to its 2,100 students and now sells 700. Point of sale locations have been increased and offer only reimbursable meals to make sure students can eat lunch without having to wait in long lines.

Prior to the changes, the FSD was losing $200,000 annually. Currently, the FSD has a $400,000 reserve, and the annual budget has gone from $1.75 million in 1995 to $3.5 million in 2002 due to increased revenues.

For more informaiton, contact:
Al Schieder, Food Services Director
Folsom Cordova Unified School District
916 355-1180
aschied@fcusd.k12.ca.us
www.fcusd.k12.ca.us

back to top

Davis Joint Unified School District Crunch Lunch (excerpted from the publication, Agrarian Advocate Summer 2001. Community Alliance with Family Farmers.)

This year, Yolo County is seeing the beginnings of a grassroots effort supporting local food, farm, and nutrition awareness in its school systems through the Farm to School program.

Pioneer Elementary School in Davis opened the district's first school salad bar in April. Dubbed "Crunch Lunch", it provides an alternative to the traditional hot lunch by using fresh fruits and vegetables bought directly from local growers. The local produce is combined with a variety of meats, cheeses, beans, nuts, seeds and local artesian breads to give school children a wide choice of fresh food options. The salad bar has been enormously popular with the kids, disproving a commonly held assumption that they don,t like vegetables.

Crunch Lunch is one of the final stages of a holistic educational pilot project initiated in Davis by the Davis Educational Foundation. With support from CAFF, the project aims to integrate nutrition, agriculture, environment, community and health education into the school curriculum. This is achieved through school gardens, nutrition education around the salad bar, cooking activities, recycling and composting programs, and farm visits. These programs give kids the opportunity to identify the role that farmers and agriculture play in their daily lives, their environment, and their communities, and to make healthy choices about nutrition and lifestyle.

Approximately 40 members of the Winters community began discussing the possibility of starting a program of their own in March. This show of support was incentive enough for Toni Martin, Food Service Director of Winters Joint Unified Schools, to seek grant money with the help of the Winters LEAF (Linking Education, Agriculture and Food Services) committee and begin planning for a salad bar in one Winters school this fall. Additionally, Mary Kay Korn, a Winters parent and 4-H leader, is working on a school garden program at the elementary level, while Wolfskill Continuation High School is moving ahead with an enormously successful integrated school farm curriculum.

Farm to School programs here and around the country are important steps toward healthy kids and stronger local agricultural systems. Davis, Crunch Lunch served approximately 200 meals a day, and each child ate an average of three servings of fruits and vegetables per meal. The food costs for just the produce was about $350 a week, money that went directly into farmers,pockets. For now the market is small and only benefits a few farmers. If the program can be expanded to all the schools in the district, however, the numbers will start looking more meaningful. If expanded to all of Yolo County, it would have a significant impact on local farms, vitality.

Farm to School in Yolo County has a ways to go before it can be considered an integral part of our educational system, but for now kids are starting to make the connections linking food, farms, nutrition, and community health, and they say- Crunch Lunch Rocks!

back to top

---

Assesment of Enviornment

South Stockton- Assessment of food resources in all convenience stores, small markets, and supermarkets in 4 of the lowest income census tracts.

Community Food Assessment in South Stockton - The Public Health Services staff and the community residents of South Stockton such as the Coalition United For Families and the Healthy Children's Collaborative conducted a full participatory assessment of food resources in all convenience stores, small markets, and supermarkets in the four lowest income census tracts in Stockton. The community shared a common problem of accessing healthy foods. The continuity of this project is to support, to complete and to implement a community action plan to increase the availability of healthy foods and fresh produce at local markets in South Stockton.

For more informaiton, contact:
Tina P. Orallo, Health Education Assistant II
San Joaquin County Public Health Services
209.468.5630
torallo@sjcphs.com

back to top

---

Connecting Schools to Farm Fresh Foods

The Local Produce Link (LPL) is a project of the Healthy Eating Active Living Collaborative of the Health Education Council in Sacramento and is made possible by a grant from The California Nutrition Network. The goal of LPL is to connect schools with nearby farms, from which fresh fruits and vegetables can be bought. This connection creates direct marketing opportunities for California's organic and farmer's market growers. As the most agriculturally rich state in the nation, we want California's students to reap all of the benefits that farm fresh food has to offer. The benefits of eating food from local farms include:

SUPPORTING OUR FARMERS - There are so many middlemen involved with food distribution that farmers aren't their share of the food dollar. Buying directly from farmers is the best way to support their existence. And due to the amount of development taking place, we are quickly losing valuable farm land. Without land to grow, we can't grow food. Our local growers need our support so they can stay in business and keep their operations running.

HEALTHY FOOD AND PEOPLE - Eating fresh, unprocessed foods is the best way to prevent the diseases like obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease faced by so many of us in today's world. The closer this food is grown to you, the better! A short distance between farm and table means that more nutrients are preserved and fewer chemicals are used to keep the food looking and tasting fresh. Eating organic ensures that our food is free of the harmful chemicals used in non-organic farming practices.

HEALTHY PLANET - Some foods travel hundreds of miles to reach you and each trip contributes to land, water, and air pollution. By eating food grown close by, you are doing a great service to the environment because less fuel and energy has to be used to get food to you. Organic farming is also good for the earth because it doesn't use petroleum-based chemicals harmful to human and environmental health.

For more informaiton, contact:
Rainbow Vogt
Local Produce Link
503.304.2614
rainbow@localproducelink.com

back to top