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Northwest Regional Campus: Community Health and Research

Creating Healthy Environments for Schools

Through Creating Healthy Environments for Schools, Healthy Food Systems staff engage with local school districts to select and implement successful and effective nutrition changes to their food service programs in order to increase access to produce and to lower sugar, saturated fat, and sodium in meals. Through Creating Healthy Environments for Schools, the Healthy Food Systems team will work with six school districts in northwest Arkansas to help students have access to their best health.

Healthy Foods at School and Home

Through Creating Healthy Environments for Schools, Healthy Foods staff provide resources to help students become more involved in their health through nutritious eating at both school and home. This is done by strategic promotion of healthy school lunches and involvement in the kitchen.

Cooking with Kids at Home

Check out some cool recipes you can do at home by watching the videos below!

Apple Donuts

Cooking with Kids at Home — Apple Donuts

Cucumber Caterpillars

Cooking with Kids at Home — Cucumber Caterpillars

Toolbox

The goal of Creating Healthy Environments for Schools and this toolbox is to provide easy to access resources to reduce saturated fat, sodium and added sugar in meals served, while also increasing meal participation and promoting a districtwide culture of health.

Assessments

Assessments

These resources are a collection of tools used to assess the nutrition programs for each school district. All or some of these tools may be used, depending on program needs.

Assessments
Child Nutrition Director

Child Nutrition Director

These resources and tools are intended to help the Nutrition Director make improvements to the program both in the near and long-term.

Child Nutrition Director
Child Nutrition Staff

Child Nutrition Staff

These resources and tools will assist in a continuous cycle of improvement for all staff members.

Child Nutrition Staff
District Admin

District Administrators

District Administrators provide the guidance and funding to make school nutrition happen.

District Administrators
School Administrators

School Administrators

Key to provide quality environments for healthy school meals are school administrators.

School Administrators
Teachers and School Staff

Teachers and School Staff

These resources and tools include curriculum and information on healthy food.

Teachers and School Staff
Students

Students

The resources included here will provide students with the information they need to make informed, healthy choices.

Students
Parents

Parents

The resources and tools provided here will not only provide the information needed for healthy nutrition, but also how to provide affordable, healthy food at home.

Parents
Community Partners

Community Partners

Resources and tools are provided here to help community partners get involved and provide quality assistance to schools.

Community Partners
General Public

General Public

Any quality school nutrition program needs the support of the general public. Here are some resources to inform them and get them involved.

General Public
Vendors

Vendors

The higher the quality of the food provided for school nutrition, the easier it is to get buy-in from stakeholders. Here are some resources to work effectively with them.

Vendors

Contact Information

For more information about Creating Healthy Environments for Schools, contact Ally Mrachek at AMrachek@uams.edu.

Funding

Funding for Creating Healthy Environments for Schools is provided by the Alice L. Walton Foundation.