Nutrition Labeling on Menus/Menu Boards at Chain Restaurants

Decrease Marketing of Low-Nutrition Foods to Children

• Take Action
  • Urge Viacom/Nickelodeon to Stop Marketing Junk Food to Children
• Company Policies on Food Marketing to Children
  • Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing
    • Tool to Assist Parents, Health Professionals, and Others in Using the Guidelines for Responsible Marketing to Children
  • Summary of Company Policies
  • Summary of Company Nutrition Standards
• Model Policies
  • Model State Legislation: Food Marketing in Schools
  • Model School Wellness Policies, National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity
    (See Section III on Food Marketing in Schools)
  • Model City Resolution on Food Marketing Aimed at Children
• Food Marketing in Schools
• Background – Reports and Fact Sheets

Improve School Foods Outside of Meals

(Vending, a la carte, snacks, fundraisers, rewards, parties, etc.)

	Take the Quiz & Test Your Knowledge of Junk Foods in School

National Legislation:

• • Support national legislation to get junk food out of schools.

State and Local Policy:

Model School Foods Policies

• • Model state legislation on vending, a la carte and other foods sold outside of meals
  • Model school wellness policies on physical activity and nutrition
  • Model language for a school board resolution to provide healthy beverages and ban soda in schools (from the Los Angeles Unified School District)

CSPI's School Foods Tool Kit provides how to's, model materials and policies, and examples of what other states and communities are doing to improve school foods.

• • Model state legislation on foods and beverages sold individually in schools
  • Model local school wellness policies on physical activity and nutrition
  • Model language for a school board resolution to provide healthy beverages at (and ban soda from) schools (from the Los Angeles Unified School District)

Find out your state's policy on nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold outside of school meals in CSPI's:

• • 2007 School Foods Report Card
  • 2006 School Foods Report Card

Background:

• • Report: Dispensing Junk: How School Vending Undermines Efforts to Feed Children Well
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Report to Congress on Foods Sold in Competition with USDA School Meal Programs
  • Additional Background Resources

Improving School Foods without Losing Money:

• • Report: Raw Deal: School Beverage Contracts Less Lucrative Than They Seem (PDF 4,000kb)
  • Recommendations for Healthier School Beverage Contracts from Community Health Partnership (PDF 45kb)
  • Additional Revenue Resources

Fundraising:

• • Report: Sweet Deals: School Fundraising Can Be Healthy and Profitable (PDF 1.6mb)
  • Fact Sheet: Fundraising Options Available to Schools

Serve Healthy Snacks:

• • Healthy school snack ideas
  • Model newsletter article/1-page summary of healthy snack ideas for children

Rewards in the Classroom:

• • Fact Sheet: Constructive Classroom Rewards: Promoting Good Habits While Protecting Children's Health
  • Alternatives to Using Food as a Reward developed by Michigan State University Extension

Celebrations/Parties:

• • Healthy Classroom Celebrations

Improve School Meals

Strengthen the National School Lunch and Other Child Nutrition Programs

Encourage and support fruit and vegetable intake through the school meal programs

School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study II, a study by USDA of the foods served in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program

School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study III

Promote and serve low-fat milk

• • 1% Or Less School Kit
  • Nutrition Content of Chocolate and Other Flavored Milks
  • Milk in Schools Fact Sheet

Tips for Keeping Teenagers Participating in School Nutrition Programs, from MontanaTeam Nutrition Program

Benefits of Having a Recess Before Lunch Policy and Tips for Getting Started

Find Your State's Policies on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity

Find out about legislation that states are working on to promote and support healthy eating and physical activity.

• • Database of state physical activity and nutrition legislation — by the National Conference of State Legislatures
  • Database of state nutrition and physical activity legislation — by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity
  • Report from Healthy Policy Tracking Service on State Legislation and Policies Affecting Child and Adolescent Nutrition, Obesity and Physical Activity

Increase Physical Activity in Schools

Support daily physical education for every school child

Model School Wellness Policies on Physical Activity and Nutrition

Implement programs and policies to support walking or biking to school

Provide after-school physical activity programs and physical activity in existing after-school programs

Ensure adequate recess time

Additional resources for increasing physical activity in schools:

• • State Nutrition and Physical Activity Policies — CDC's School Health Policies and Programs Study
  • Legislation introduced in states to promote physical activity and healthy eating — list compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures
  • "Promoting Better Health for Young People through Physical Activity and Sports: A Report to the President from the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Education"
  • To find out the physical education requirements in your state, click here to purchase a copy of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's "Shape of the Nation" report
  • The Physical Education for Progress program (a national program that provides grants for physical education)

Support Physical Activity through Transportation Policy

If your state is one of the 30 states that have a constitutional or statutory restriction on using state gasoline taxes on anything other than highways (see list), work to change the law to allow gas tax funds to be used for transit, bike lanes, trails, sidewalks, and other infrastructure that supports physical activity.

• • Example legislation/Constitutional amendment from Maine

Implement programs and policies to make it safe for kids to walk and bike to school.

• • Model legislation on Safe Routes to Schools from Texas
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Safe Routes to Schools Tool Kit
  • Organize a "Walk to School Day"
  • "The 2002 Summary of Safe Routes to School Programs in the United States" report by Transportation Alternatives and the Surface Transportation Policy Project. Report includes summaries of model programs that support walking and biking to school and an inventory of programs by location
  • The California Safe Routes to School report
  • CDC's Kids Walk to School program encourages communities to promote and provide opportunities for children to walk to and from school in groups accompanied by adults.
  • Examine your neighborhood and determine how friendly your streets are for walkers using a Walkability Checklist

Promote Fruit and Vegetable Intake

Encourage and support fruit and vegetable intake through the school meals programs

Provide schoolchildren fruits and vegetables as a snack

• • USDA's Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program
  • Evaluation of the USDA Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program

Strengthen and increase resources for your state 5 A Day program

• • Pass legislation to codify your state 5 A Day program
  • Get soft drink or other snack taxes earmarked for health programs including 5 A Day

Develop interagency agreements among state agencies for 5 A Day. Use the national memorandum of understanding between the USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' as a model

Conduct demonstration projects to provide economic incentives to increase fruit and vegetable purchases and consumption through the Food Stamp Program (i.e., double value for Food Stamp coupons when purchasing fruits and vegetables)

Revise the WIC food packages to offer more fruits and vegetables (fresh, frozen, or canned in addition to or in partial or full replacement of juice for women and children). Push for national changes to USDA regulations or conduct demonstration projects/apply for waivers from USDA

Require that retail stores that redeem WIC coupons stock a minimum of five linear feet of refrigerated fresh fruits and vegetables to qualify for a grocery vendor agreement. For an example of this, see the Administrative Code for Iowa State, Chapter 73.8(4)a(1)

General Accounting Office Report, Fruits and Vegetables: Enhanced Federal Efforts to Increase Consumption Could Yield Health Benefits for Americans, summarizes recommendations for promoting fruits and vegetables and current federal efforts to increase intake

Work with other organizations to help achieve the goals of the National 5 A Day Partnership

Increase Resources for Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs
(including Soft Drink Taxes)

Increase Resources for State or Local Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs

Get soft drink or other snack taxes earmarked for health campaigns and programs; if your state doesn't have such a tax, try to get one passed.

Find out about your state's policy on soft drink and snack food taxes — list from the National Conference of State Legislatures