Priority 2 – School Nutrition Environment and Services

A healthy school nutrition environment provides students with nutritious and appealing foods and beverages, consistent and accurate messages about good nutrition, and ways to learn about and practice healthy eating throughout the time children spend on school grounds—including before- and after-school. Explore the resources below to support the school nutrition environment and services. These resources include webinars, guides, articles, and ready-to-go handouts to share with staff and families

School Nutrition Resources from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation

 

A list of avenues available to begin planning a fundraiser.
A one-page document containing five tips for increasing water consumption.
In this 20-minute on-demand, let's look at the principles of standardization and effects on nutritional quality and integrity of the meal. Learn accurate measuring techniques for weights, measures, and volume for cooking. Determine why inaccurate measurement can affect cost/yield/appearance.
This resource delivers tips on how to recruit and meet with members to build an effective School Wellness Committee.
A 10-minute self-paced on-demand focuses on the cumulative effect that one party or celebration can have over the course of a school year. Learn about strategies for changing celebrations and how to engage students and parents in the process.
Learn how to send a consistent message about good nutrition and healthy eating wherever kids have access to foods and beverages.
How “You are what you eat” translates to the federal child nutrition programs. Learn the ins and outs of balancing good nutrition and customer satisfaction.
This document includes the actions needed to regularly review your wellness policy and communicate your progress.
A guide to conducting focus groups along with a moderator’s guide to help improve the nutritional environment at schools.
A 3-step process to guide your marketing assessment and planning.
A 3-step guide to help identify, classify, and replace non-compliant marketing materials.
This 20-minute micro learning provides an overview of the USDA standards and nutrition guidelines that govern Smart Snacks.
This 20-minute micro learning provides information about food regulations for school meals and Smart Snacks within the cafeteria.
Salt is added to food for flavor, but our taste acuity increases over time. Salt has been shown to have some adverse health effects such as hypertension as well. So how do we go from bland to brilliant?
This document includes a model Local School Wellness Policy (LWP) that meets the minimum federal standards for LWP implementation under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.
Steps you can take to ensure that your school community provides fun and healthy celebrations.
A video giving tips on hosting fundraisers that make sure the school and surrounding community are keeping health top-of-mind.
A list of snack and beverage alternatives for healthy eating.
A resource to help plan and initiate healthy alternatives for rewarding students.
A resource outlining potable water requirements in schools, including tips for success.
A video describing tips for healthy, fun celebrations like birthdays and holidays.
Use this customizable tool to track progress and compliance of wellness policies and practices.
Districts can utilize this resource to guide the development of a webpage to report and inform the public about the LWP and annual updates.
A 50-minute live webinar, we’ll review all key requirements and provide you with the resources and strategies you need to successfully assess, monitor and implement your Local School Wellness Policy.
This training series focuses on Food & Beverage Marketing, Monitoring & Evaluating, Nutrition Promotion.
Three short trainings that provides best-practice resources to evaluate and revise LWP to meeting USDA Final Rule requirements. Promoting school meals programs to implement nutrition education opportunities throughout the school day. Healthy marketing messages that promotes good nutrition across the school campus.
This document provides additional supplemental language that can be included in Local Wellness Policies to address the management of chronic health conditions in schools.
This video highlights the new USDA regulations that impact schools.
This 15-minute micro learning provides strategies for nutrition education and promotion to support the consistency of foods and beverages sold and served in schools.
This list of resources is geared to maximize your nutrition services.
A video to show you how to make small changes to your school wellness program with big impacts on student health.
Become a nutrition detective by using a food label. In this 20-minute on-demand, identify the important pieces of label reading, demonstrate how to read a label, and what to look for.
This 10-minute on-demand provides a general overview of food allergies (focusing on the Big 8) and considerations when selling, serving, or offering food and beverages.
Self-paced e-learning modules that supports the implementation process and provides sustainability of the local school wellness policy (LWP) process.
This resource provides the steps needed to create an action-oriented advisory group that focuses on the health and well-being of students, staff, and families in a school community.
This guideline lists the roles and responsibilities of a School Wellness Committee.
This is a resource for school wellness committees to convene, plan and implement their action plans.
This tool will help ensure that food served in schools and after-programs meet the Smart Snacks in School Nutrition Standards.
An overview of tools to ensure that all foods and beverages consumed during the school day support the development of healthy eating habits.
A guide with tools to ensure your school offers healthier food and beverages that meet Smart Snacks in School standards throughout your entire campus.
An interactive tool to help check compliance with Smart Snacks in School guidelines.
A student-focused survey to gauge interest in school-provided meals.
A survey geared towards students to evaluate their interest in possible non-food rewards.
This guide provide steps and forms to use to conduct student taste tests.
Districts can use this checklist in conjunction with Healthier Generation’s Model Wellness Policy, to revise/update their LWP and ensure that it meets federal requirements.
A video highlighting tips and examples to create a Wellness Committee.
Get information and tips to develop a communication plan to build a broader level of support for your wellness goals.
Healthier Generation, the National Association for School Nurses, and the American Lung Association provides a one-hour interactive webinar to highlight the new features of Healthier Generation’s Model Local School Wellness Policy (LWP).
Provides ideas and action steps for self-care that address five key areas of our overall well-being.
Self-paced e-learning modules to generate creativity around meal participation strategies and empower learners to identify best practices in other school districts and programs.