Focus Area: School & After School

Measurement of the Food and Physical Activity Environments: Enhancing Research Relevant to Policy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Weight

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The American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) published proceedings from a November 2007 workshop on “Measures of the Food and Built Environments.” The workshop was co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) National Cancer Institute; the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver More

Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food: Open Campus Lunch

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This brief discusses open-campus and off-campus lunch policies, which allow high school students to go outside school boundaries to buy and eat food during their lunch breaks. The document addresses how such policies are established, nutritional implications, racial and socioeconomic considerations, safety issues and effect on on-campus and local businesses. From this discussion, readers can More

Legal Notes: Open Campus Lunch. Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food

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This document, a companion to Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food-Open Campus Lunch, provides a legal framework for the issues surrounding open-campus lunch policies, which allow high school students to go off-campus to purchase and eat lunch. The purpose of the document is to help readers identify key legal access points for reaching policy goals More

Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food: School Stores, Concessions, and Fundraising

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This brief discusses key issue involved with foods distributed in school stores, concessions, and fundraising activities-venues for competitive foods. It outlines the legal and policy approaches to improving enforcement of school wellness policies and regulations, discusses what legal decision-making authority city officials, legislators, and community organizations have in the quality-improvement process, and discusses key barriers More

Legal Notes: School Stores, Concessions, and Fundraising. Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food

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This brief discusses legal issues surrounding the provision of competitive foods in on-campus venues-including school stores and concessions and fundraising environments. Designed as a companion to Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food-School Stores, Concessions, and Fundraising, this document provides readers with the information needed to identify key legal access points for creating their own policies More

Schools and Obesity Prevention: Creating School Environments and Policies to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

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Schools have an unparalleled opportunity to promote children’s health by creating an environment in which children eat healthy foods, engage in regular physical activity, and learn life-long skills for healthy eating and active living. In this article, authors discuss the role of schools in obesity prevention efforts, current issues in schools’ food and physical activity More

Early Impact of the Federally Mandated Local Wellness Policy on Physical Activity in Rural, Low-Income Elementary Schools in Colorado

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This paper documents the effectiveness of the federal mandated Local Wellness Policy on 45 rural elementary schools in Colorado. Using baselines and follow-up surveys conducted up to one year after the Local Wellness Policy was implemented, researchers found that opportunities for physical activity did not change substantively. Interviews of sources revealed several barriers in improving More

School Food Environments and Practices Affect Dietary Behaviors of U.S. Public School Children

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Using data from the third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study, this study estimates the effects of school food environments on children’s consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, low-nutrient energy-dense foods and fruits and vegetables in school. The national study involved more than 2,300 children in 287 schools. Results demonstrated that sugar-sweetened beverages consumed at school contributed an More

Association Between School Food Environment and Practices and Body Mass Index of U.S. Public School Children

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Using data from the third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study, this study estimates the association between school food environments and practices and children’s likelihood for obesity. (Obesity was defined as having a body mass index greater than the 95th percentile for their age.) The national study involved more than 2,200 children in 287 schools. The More