Nutrition Education and School Meals

Websites

Action for Healthy Kids. Program information and resources to help support positive changes in nutrition and physical activity in schools to address the problem of obesity. Action for Healthy Kids partners with schools and families in every state to improve child and adolescent health and readiness to learn through better nutrition and physical activity.
Alliance for a Healthier Generation: Healthy Schools Program. Tools, tips, and resources to implement this program aimed at preventing childhood obesity by encouraging healthy snacks and school meals and physical activity and education among students, teachers, and staff in schools.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Healthy Youth! Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. Data, science-based strategies, policy guidance, and information about national, state, and local programs to improve nutrition education and school meals. Resources and initiatives include

Implementing Strong Nutrition Standards for Schools: Financial Implications. (2011). [Fact sheet].

Making It Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories. Information about schools and school districts that have implemented innovative strategies to improve the nutritional quality of foods and beverages sold outside federal meal programs.

School Health Guidelines to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity. (2011).

School Health Index. A self-assessment and planning tool that schools can use to improve their health and safety policies and programs, including those related to nutrition.

Under Pressure: Strategies for Sodium Reduction in the School Environment. (2011). [Guide].

Also see the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS).
Edible Schoolyard Project. Information about and resources to support this initiative to teach students to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce to better understand the connection between what they eat and where it comes from, with the goal of improving health, fostering environmental stewardship, and revolutionizing the school lunch program. Resources include program plans, equipment lists, and classroom lessons.
Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC). Links to resources on a wide range of food and nutrition topics, including nutrition education and lifecycle nutrition. Also see FNIC's resource lists and the Healthy Meals Resource System.
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Program information and resources about nutrition-assistance programs, including the school meals programs. Presents nutrition standards for school meals, data and statistics, forms, nutrition-education materials, regulations and policy, and research about nutrition-assistance programs. Initiatives include

Team Nutrition. Nutrition-education materials for teachers; training and technical-assistance materials for school food service professionals; and materials to build school and community support for healthy eating and physical activity. Programs and resources include
- HealthierUS School Challenge. Program to recognize those schools participating in the National School Lunch Program that have created healthier school environments through promotion of nutrition and physical activity.
- Healthy Meals Resource System (HMRS). Resources for school food service and child care professionals, including education and training materials, recipes and menus, local wellness-policy materials, best practice tools, online discussion groups, and electronic news services.
Food Family Farming (F3) Foundation. Tools to help schools progress from serving highly processed, unhealthy food to serving fresh, scratch-cooked food. Lunch Box presents menus, recipes, materials, a blog, online discussion forums, school food news, and video clips with culinary techniques and interviews about school food change. Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools presents resources to help schools offer salad bars as part of their meal programs.
Let's Move! Tools to help make schools healthier places to learn by providing quality nutrition, integrating physical activity during the day, and teaching children about the importance of embracing a healthy, active lifestyle. Includes a toolkit for teachers and information about and materials to support the Chefs Move to Schools program. Also see the Food Family Farming (F3) Foundation and its initiative, Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools.
National Farm to School Network. Program and funding information, news, webinars, and publications about connecting schools with local farms to serve healthy meals in school cafeterias, improve student nutrition, provide nutrition education, and support local small farmers.
National Food Service Management Institute (NFSMI) Resource Center. Nutrition-education materials, instructional videoclips, and online courses to improve school meals programs.
Stallings VA, Suitor CW, Taylor CL, eds. 2010. School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [Report].
Stallings VA, Yaktine AL, eds. 2007. Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the Way Toward Healthier Youth. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [Consensus report, Fact sheet, Report brief]. Also see the CDC's set of fact sheets based on this report for school staff, food service personnel, parents, and students about implementing nutrition standards.
Also see the MCH Digital Library resource brief, Maternal and Child Health Literature and Research Databases, and, in particular, the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) Database and the State School Healthy Policy Database.

Related MCH Digital Library Resources

Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents resource brief
Food Safety resource brief
Food Security and Nutrition Assistance Programs resource brief
Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in Child Care and Early Education Programs resource brief
Nutrition in Children and Adolescents professional resource guide, family resource brief
Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents professional resource guide, family resource brief, school resource brief

Nutrition Education and School Meals: School Resource Brief, 2nd ed. (September 2012). (Updated: May 2014).

Author: Susan Brune Lorenzo, M.L.S., MCH Digital Library.
Reviewers: Arissa K. Anderson, M.P.H. and R.D. candidate, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Stephanie Loup, M.P.H. and R.D. candidate, University of Minnesota; Shree Mohanty, M.A., M.S., R.D., L.D., Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Region V; Olivia Pickett, M.A., M.L.S., MCH Digital Library; Bridget L. Wardley, M.S., R.D., C.S.P., New York University Steinhardt.
Editor: Ruth Barzel, M.A., MCH Digital Library.