In addition, the Project supports other
low income elementary, middle and
high schools by providing professional development and nutrition
education resources. |
About the
Nutrition Education Project
The Nutrition Education Project (NEP) in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is administered through the Student, Family, and Community Support Department.
- Educate children about the benefits of eating fruits
and vegetables every day and
being physically
active for 60 minutes a day
- Empower classroom teachers and after school staff to integrate
nutrition education and physical activity into classroom
culture and lessons
- Support SFUSD Nutrition and Physical Education policy
by working with schools to develop school procedures
around healthy eating
- Increase family awareness and participation related to
nutrition and physical activity
- Promote participation in the National School Lunch Program
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Impact at Target Schools | Elementary Level Program | Secondary Level Program | Evaluation | Project Partners
(2011-12)
Fruit and Vegetable Preference: The NEP six-lesson curriculum was shown to significantly increase fourth -and fifth grade students' enjoyment of and preference for fruits and vegetables. The positive results were sustained at least six weeks after the conclusion of the intervention.
Fruit Consumption (California Healthy Kids Survey, grade 5): NEP Schools had a significant increase in the number of students who ate fruit 3 or more times “yesterday” from 32.2% in 2003 to 46.2% in 2011.
Positive Changes in the School Community: Over 93% of staff surveyed report seeing positive changes in the healthy eating habits and physical activity among students in 2011.
Project Sustainability:
- In 2002, when NEP began working with target schools, almost no teachers had healthy snack policies in their classroom. By the end of last school year, nearly all teachers (93%) at NEP schools reported having a healthy snack policy in their classrooms.
- By the end of the 2011-12 school year, 99% of surveyed staff at NEP schools reported they had a school-wide healthy snack policy that was well-publicized (88%) and enforced by school administrators (89%). Nearly all teachers (96%) reported that parents/caregivers adhere to the healthy snack policy.
- In 2011-12, 94% of teachers surveyed reported implementing at least one nutrition lesson on their own in the past school year, while 80% report teaching three or more nutrition lessons during the school year.
District-Wide Impact:
Nutrition Lessons (Elementary Coordinated Program Monitoring--CPM): presented lesson resources at workshops and School Health Program meetings and has modeled lessons at target schools. There has been a significant increase in the number of nutrition lessons taught by classroom teachers from 2007/08 (9,473) to 2011/12 (54,444).
Read more in Nutrition Education Project (NEP) Impact & Outreach (pdf)
The project is currently at the following 27 elementary schools.
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*Harvest of the Month only |
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PROGRAM ELEMENTS
School site nutrition coordinators are responsible for:
Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Promotion in the classroom
- Model comprehensive nutrition lessons which incorporate California Health Education Content Standards and Nutrition Competencies while linking to SFUSD academic standards
- Provide demonstration and tasting of healthy foods utilizing a mobile cooking cart
- Provide professional development on nutrition education and physical activity promotion
- Facilitate field trips to farmers' markets or gardens
School wide Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Promotion
- Spearhead site-based committee for environmental change in support of the SFUSD Wellness Policy
- Provide fruit and vegetable tasting activities
- Promote participation in National School Lunch & Breakfast Programs
Family Outreach
- Provide parent/caregiver workshops on nutrition education and physical activity promotion
Harvest of the Month
- Provide a highlighted fruit or vegetable for monthly classroom tastings
- Distribution of educator newsletters to classroom teachers to link the highlighted fruit or vegetable to health, science, language arts and other subject areas.
- Distribution of monthly family Harvest of the Month newsletters, translated into English, Chinese and Spanish.
The project is currently at the following schools.
PROGRAM ELEMENTS
Middle & High School Youth Engagement Program
- Student teams engage in problem-solving and strategizing to research and identify a nutrition or physical activity issue. Students design and complete a youth engagement project at their school site.
The local evaluation of San Francisco
Unified School District ’s
Nutrition Education Project features outcome and process
evaluation components to measure project effectiveness
and to assess the extent of implementation, coverage, fidelity,
and reaction. Following a need/resource assessment, a site-based
nutrition committee develops a plan reflecting the school
environment. Results from student, staff and parent surveys,
along with other evaluation tools, are used to monitor
program effectiveness.
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