Can you change a school’s culture from the inside?

The more than 50 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) partners believe you can and are committed to providing comprehensive school-wide programs designed to teach kids healthy habits and address childhood obesity.

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. The goal is to tailor resources with the individual needs of each school.

“Each program is unique,” says Dr. Kathleen Cullinen, director of network programs at the Michigan Fitness Foundation (MFF), one of the partners. “It’s unique depending on the infrastructure, school and community environments, and experience with healthy programming.”

SNAP-Ed is ultimately a partnership between MFF, MFF Network Partners, Michigan State University, Wayne State University and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Other groups such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, United Way, state and local non-profits also partner in this work.

The school-based components of healthy community interventions depend on engagement between students, administrators as well as quality, targeted interventions that are culturally relevant.

The effectiveness of both school and community programs is reviewed by teams of evaluators at MFF and other SNAP-Ed partners MSU and Wayne State as well as independent consultants.For the elementary school programs, evaluators utilize a blend of in-person and online surveys to collect much of the data, including pre- and post-surveys of students, teachers and parents.

“Partnering allows a greater collective impact,” says Dr. Marci Scott, vice president for health programs at MFF. “Not only are we sharing our expertise in evolving all of the programming together, but we’re actually leveraging funds. We’re able to work together and investing together in communities, schools and in the health of children to make a bigger impact.”

According to Cullinen, the state-wide program has evolved to have greater impact and more streamlined implementation for participating schools and communities. Stories of successes related to student health abound.

WHAT SNAP-ED DOES

Launched in 1990 by the United States Department of Agriculture as a nationwide program, there are SNAP-Ed programs in elementary, middle, and high schools. Each year, successful pilots are scaled up to reach more schools and communities and have a larger impact on the state of Michigan, Cullinen says.

Thanks to SNAP-ED and its programs, the amount of evidence linking healthy eating and physical activity to student achievement has increased. Schools understand more now that healthy kids are better learners.

Parents, teachers and administrators are very supportive of the program and students are taking home the nutritional lessons they learn at school. Parents say their children eat healthier at home and are more physically active.

Although SNAP-Ed has been around for more than two decades, nutritional awareness is still a factor. Most parents tend to learn about the program through different school communication methods like newsletters and email. In addition, many schools host events with health themes, which provide parents another opportunity to see SNAP-Ed in action.

“Kids are naturally involved in the program because it is integrated fully into the school environment,” Cullinen says. “They participate in lessons in the classroom and gymnasium. Experiential learning opportunities are build-in through the school day as well as before and after school.”

Some of the programs give the students the opportunity to be part of the student leadership team.

“We have learned that students are eager to take what they have learned and put it into practice,” Cullinen says. “The beauty of this program is that the school environment is transformed. Now, students can easily make that healthy choice.”

  Preventing childhood obesity