Family Nutrition Education
Nutrition education is an important way to encourage healthy eating, build good lifelong habits, and combat our State, and our country’s, childhood obesity epidemic. Ideally, Nutrition Education should link what children are eating at school and in out-of-school time programming, with what they are learning about in the classroom.
Best practice Nutrition Education links research, theory and practice; and focuses on behavior change. Below is a list of high quality nutrition education resources that have been reviewed and recommended by a State team of experts. This is not an all-inclusive list, but includes many of the best free and low-cost Nutrition Education resources offered in Michigan and nationally. Use these resources to provide and improve Nutrition Education and to create an implementation plan for the Nutrition Education portion of your local Wellness Policy.
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Game On!
Format: Webpage
Audience: K-12 School Health/Wellness Teams- Students, Teachers, Parents, Administrators, Foodservice Workers, Community Members, Coaches
Cost: Free
Game On challenges America’s schools, staff, students, and the families they serve to get healthy, inside and out. Game On provides all the information and resources you need to host a successful school wellness program in your school, including an interactive school blueprint that allows you to search for fun Eat Better and Move More Challenges for every aspect of your school building. Explore the Game On website and the 6 steps they offer to help you improve student health, while reaching your schools needs. Don't forget to check out step 4: Find Activities to engage everyone on the team, including students!
Available at: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/tools-for-schools/game-on
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Healthy Food Ideas: School Snacks, Celebrations, and Family Events
Format: PDF
Audience: Parents, Teachers, Foodservice Workers, Coaches
Cost: Free
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2-page PDF that includes ideas for healthy foods and games for classroom parties or school celebrations. It also includes ideas for snacks kids can make and how to make edible art!Available at: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/storage/documents/parent-toolkit/foodideasf3a.pdf
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Healthy Fundraisers
Format: PDF
Audience: Parents, Teachers, Foodservice Workers, Coaches, Club Leaders
Cost: Free
Action for Healthy Kids offers 2 PDFs that include ideas for non-food, healthy food, and physical activity-promoting school, club, or team fundraisers.Available at: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/storage/documents/parent-toolkit/fundraisers-food-sales-f1.pdf
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Healthier Middle Schools Everyone Can Help
Format: PDF and/or hard copy
Audience: Principals, Parents, Teachers, Foodservice Workers, Students
Cost: Free
Series of communication tools (PDFs and videos) for teachers, principals, parents, food service managers and students, with videos and handouts for each audience.Available at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthier-middle-schools-everyone-can-help
Or upon request from Team Nutrition - Team Nutrition offers materials for free to schools and child care centers that participate in Federal Child Nutrition Programs.
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Healthy Non-Food Rewards
Format: PDF
Audience: Parents, Teachers, Foodservice Workers, Coaches, Club Leaders
Cost: Free
A 2-page PDF that includes creative, free and low-cost ideas for health-promoting non-food rewards. It offers specific ideas by grade level- elementary school, middle school, and high school and also offers ideas for Parent/Teacher Organizations (PTOs).Available at: http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/storage/documents/parent-toolkit/rewardsf3a.pdf
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Let's Party- School Party Ideas
Format: PDF
Audience: Teachers, Parents, Coaches, Club Leaders
Cost: Free
This PDF give you ideas for creating a healthy party at school. It provides ideas to make your party healthy, safe, fun, and simple! This document includes student friendly recipes and also recipes for the cafeteria that are in the USDA Recipes for Schools with numerical code. There are also 10 party theme ideas available for you to try for your next school party!Available at: http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/hsmrs/WestVirginia/LetsParty.pdf
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Michigan Harvest of the Month
Audience: Teachers, Coaches, Club Leaders
Cost: $$- For pricing and ordering contact resources@michiganfitness.org
Michigan Harvest of the MonthTM materials are hands-on to allow for exploration, tasting, and learning regarding the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and being physically active every day. Michigan Harvest of the MonthTM features ready-to-go nutrition education materials that can be used in diverse applications within the community and school environment. The materials can easily be integrated into the core curriculum and are based on the most current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Materials for families are available in English, Spanish, and Arabic.Available at: http://www.michiganfitness.org/harvest-month - Download a copy to review or order at resources@michiganfitness.org
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MyPlate Materials (family focused)
Format: Multiple formats
Audience: Students, Parents
Cost: Free
MyPlate offers many resources for free- handouts, fact sheets, activity sheets, games, songs, online guidance and more! Once you follow the link below, look across the top and select audience. This will allow you to choose the section most relevent to you. The sections by audience are Children (Preschoolers, Kids), Students (Teens, College), Adults (Men & Women, Moms/Moms to be, Older Adults). Many of their materials are offered in multiple languages.Available at: www.choosemyplate.gov
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My Way to Wellness Online Nutrition Education for Adults
Format: Online
Audience: Adults- ages 18-65
Cost: $10 or free to SNAP eligible audiences
Through the self-paced online course, participants will work towards setting goals as a key component to achieve where they want to be with health. Along with personal goal setting, other topic areas include nutritional needs and physical activity, building a healthy MyPlate, energy – a balancing act, picking the best portions, healthy habits for a healthy life and others. The course is comprised of eleven self-paced modules that include physical activity and food safety demonstration videos.Available at: Go to https://events.anr.msu.edu/event.cfm?eventID=69BEE709E1E5ACA4 to register. Once registered, your program information will be emailed to you.
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