To help win the fight against childhood obesity, Horizon Student Nutrition Guide is providing a comprehensive nutrition and activity resource.

Why Horizon Student Nutrition Guide?
Outside of the home, children and adolescents spend the majority of their time in schools. So, it makes sense that schools provide an environment that promotes healthy nutrition and physical activity habits. Only a few creative programs are being tested in schools across the country—Horizon Student Nutrition Guide is at the forefront.

Horizon Student Nutrition Guide Can Help.
The need for accurate, comprehensive nutrition and activity education for your students has never been more crucial and Horizon Student Nutrition Guide is the interactive, multimedia resource that can provide an immediate solution to your most immediate curricular needs.  Horizon Student Nutrition Guide uses the CDC National Health Education Standards as its foundation and frames its content to include state standards from all 50 states.

What is Included?
• Lesson Plans
• Discussion Guide
• Student Worksheets
• Testing Materials
• Student Resource CDs

GRANT INFORMATION
(Click here for printer-friendly PDF)

At Horizon, we know educators are busy people! Feel free to use this text as a starting point for writing your grant proposal to fund Horizon Student Nutrition Guides for your classroom. Below this information is a list of organizations which offer grants for nutrition education.

The prevalence of overweight children between 6 and 11 years of age has nearly tripled in the last 40 years. Currently, 12.5 million children and adolescents are overweight. This is disconcerting because childhood obesity a risk factor for may other diseases and can lead to chronic health problems. Furthermore, studies clearly link the nutritional status of children and their performance in school. Because children spend a substantial part of their day in school, the school environment lends itself to nutrition intervention. Studies have shown school-based nutrition interventions to be effective in reducing obesity rates as well as being highly cost-effective in the long run.   

North Spring Elementary School’s wellness policy has addressed some nutrition and physical activity issues. For example, recess can no longer be taken away from students as punishment, students are not allowed to bring sweets to the class to celebrate their birthdays, and soft drinks with calories have been eliminated from the school vending machines. Parents and teachers, however, have expressed concern that more needs to be done for the students in the way of education.

The goal of this new nutrition awareness program at North Springs Elementary School is for students to understand the overall benefits of good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle and to help propel students towards adapting healthier habits. The 600 students in first through fifth grade will participate in the 30-45 minute long nutrition lessons once a week for 15 weeks. The program’s interdisciplinary curriculum will come from The Horizon Student Nutrition Guide, in which all content was developed by Registered Dietitians.  The curriculum is designed to meet the CDC’s National Health Education Standards as well as standards for all fifty states.  It also incorporates the 2005 Dietary Guidelines and MyPyramid. The program has also been designed to engage the children’s whole families in healthy changes.

The Horizon Student Nutrition Guide classroom package includes a Teacher Guide, a Teacher CD, and 20 Student CDs. The Teacher Guide contains background information, lesson plans, activity materials, unit tests, enrichment opportunities and additional resources. The Teacher CD contains student activities and assessments, as well as a BMI (Body Mass Index) calculator. The Student CDs contain nutrition information, games, puzzles, and quizzes, as well as a parent section that teaches adults about the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans and helps them understand why the eating and exercise habits of their children may need to change. The Horizon Student Nutrition Guide costs $99 per classroom to implement. Since North Springs Elementary School has 30 classrooms that would be a total cost of $2970. The North Springs Elementary School PTA has been able to raise $500 towards the cost of the program, but the school still needs an additional $2470 before the program can be realized.

The program’s objective is to increase all students’ knowledge of basic nutrition concepts by at least 30% over the course of one school year. Pre- and post-tests included with the curriculum will be used to evaluate if the objective has been met. Specifically, the areas of nutrition that will be focused on and measured will be the nutrients and their functions, Dietary Guidelines, understanding nutrition claims, recognizing influences on food choices, selecting healthy meals from restaurants, changing habits, overcoming barriers to good nutrition, and sharing nutrition information with others.

(Click here for printer-friendly PDF of list.)

Allen Foundation, Inc.

https://www.allenfoundation.org/default.asp

Awards grants to encourage the dissemination of information regarding healthful nutritional practices and habits.

Will consider requests from K-12 public, parochial or private schools. (Preference may be given to proposals that include matching funds from the institution or other partners including in-kind contribution.)

Deadline is December 31st

Apply online line at https://www.allenfoundation.org/applicants/apply.asp

US Dept of Education – Carol M. White Physical Education Program

http://www.ed.gov/programs/whitephysed/index.html

Provides funding for the development and implementation of physical activity programs, which may include instruction in healthy eating habits and good nutrition.

Considers requests from local educational agencies and community-based organizations for K-12 students

Deadline is in March

Application can be found at http://www.ed.gov/programs/whitephysed/applicant.html