Approximately 2 of every 3 children in the US spend time in child care settings where they consume much of their daily nutrition. Improving the foods and beverages offered in child care settings is a known childhood obesity prevention strategy. Researchers at the Nutrition Policy Institute published a new study suggesting family child care home providers can successfully implement nutrition standards for infants and young children after completing a brief educational intervention. Family child care homes are of particular interest for obesity prevention efforts given few nutrition standards exist in California's childcare licensing regulations for these providers, and limited studies have been conducted in these settings. The pilot study included 30 licensed family child care home providers in California who spoke English or Spanish. Providers were enrolled to participate in a 2-hour in-person training on food and beverage standards and feeding practices for both infants and children in English or Spanish in 2017. Providers' adherence to the infant and child nutrition standards increased after the training, and few providers rated the standards as difficult to implement. The training was highly rated by providers. The study was published in January 2021 in the journal Global Pediatric Health. Study results are also available online in the form of a research brief. Co-authors include Lorrene Ritchie, Danielle Lee, and Klara Gurzo of the Nutrition Policy Institute, Victoria Keeton and Abbey Alkon of the UCSF School of Nursing and California Childcare Health Program, Lauren Au of the UC Davis Department of Nutrition, and Elyse Homel Vitale of the Child Care Food Program Roundtable, previously with Nourish California at the time the study was conducted. The study was funded by a grant from the David & Lucille Packard Foundation.
The USDA granted states multiple operational waivers to continue to deliver the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) services during the COVID-19 pandemic and these waivers have enabled our ability to serve participants remotely. With funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Nutrition Policy Institute and Public Health Foundation Enterprise WIC gathered information from WIC participants about their experiences with WIC during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first brief based on information gathered from WIC participants in Los Angeles County is now available online, with more to come soon from interviews with participants and local agency staff from across California in the months to come.
Not all child care settings have nutrition standards for infants as they transition to toddlerhood. Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) researchers, in collaboration with Nourish California (previously known as California Food Policy Advocates), convened a group of science advisors and child care community advisors in 2015 to develop infant and toddler nutrition standards feasible for family child care home providers to implement. The process of developing nutrition recommendations on what foods and beverages to serve and how to feed infants and toddlers in licensed family child care home settings was published online on November 9, 2020, in a chapter featured in the Nestle Nutrition Institute Workshop Series, volume 95, titled "Building Future Health and Well-Being of Thriving Toddlers and Young Children". The 95th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop, which took place as a 3-day virtual workshop in September 2020, explored the current scientific research of creating a healthy foundation for life in toddlers and young children. Co-authors of the chapter included NPI researchers Lorrene Ritchie and Danielle Lee, Elyse Homel Vital of the Childcare Food Program Roundtable (formerly with California Food Policy Advocates), and NPI-affiliated researcher Lauren Au of the University of California, Davis, Department of Nutrition. Ritchie's presentation from the workshop is also available online.
In 2017, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released comprehensive recommendations to update the food packages provided by the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to align with the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs). The recommendations were to decrease the amount of some foods currently offered by WIC (100% fruit or vegetable juice, milk, and legumes), add foods either not offered or offered in very small amounts relative to the DGAs (fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and canned fish), increase the WIC package flexibility, and ensure the food package is culturally appropriate. The proposed changes are cost-neutral, and will save approximately $220 million program-wide from 2018 to 2022. Researchers from the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) collaborated with the California Department of Public Health and Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC program to conduct a survey of nearly 3,000 California WIC participants with children aged 1-4 years in 2019 to understand if the recommended changes to the child food package were aligned with their preferences. Results from this collaborative study were published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Survey results show that most families on WIC wanted an increase in the $9 cash value voucher (CVV) to purchase fruits and vegetables and a majority would be willing to receive more fruits and vegetables instead of juice. Most participants were interested in adding canned fish to their child's food package and were also satisfied with the amount of beans, peanut butter, and milk offered by WIC. The study was conducted by NPI-affiliated researcher Lauren Au of the University of California, Davis; NPI researchers Lorrene Ritchie, Marisa Tsai, and Hallie Randel-Schreiber; Catherine Martinez and Shannon Whaley of Public Health Foundation Enterprise WIC; and Patricia Gradziel and Susan Sabatier from the California Department of Public Health. The study was funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the California Department of Public Health WIC Division.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Expo is the largest yearly gathering of public health professionals. This year, the annual meeting is being held virtually October 24-28, 2020. Researchers from the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute will be presenting their work on a variety of collaborative food and nutrition policy studies related to the child care food environment, school meals, the federal Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and more. A full list of on-demand poster presentations and live oral presentations is below.
Child care food environment:
- California childcare centers and homes in the federal child and adult care food program offer more nutritious foods to infants
Presenters: Danielle Lee, Klara Gurzo, Lilly Nhan, Elyse Homel Vitale, Sallie Yoshida, Lorrene Ritchie
Poster presentation - Online training increases child care provider knowledge of healthy beverage policy and practices for young children
Presenters: Kaela Plank, Danielle Lee, Abbey Alkon, Marisa Neelon, L. Karina Diaz Rios, Katherine Soule, Lorrene Ritchie
Poster presentation
School meals:
- Impact of a district-wide chocolate milk removal policy on students' milk selection and consumption
Presenters: Hannah Thompson, Lorrene Ritchie, Kristine Madsen, Esther Park, Wendi Gosliner
Oral presentation, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 8:15-8:30 AM PDT
WIC:
- Families with children 1-5 years old: WIC program perspectives on nutrition education and food benefits
Presenters: Marisa Tsai, Lorrene Ritchie, Shannon Whaley, Catherine Martinez, Martha Meza, Lauren Au, Hallie Randel-Schreiber, Susan Sabatier
Oral presentation, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 8:00-8:15 AM PDT - Children on WIC followed through age 4 years: What are they eating?
Presenters: Lorrene Ritchie, Lauren Au, Shannon Whaley, Christine Borger
Oral presentation, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 9:30-9:50 AM PDT - Feeding beliefs and practices among low-income caregivers: Findings from year 4 of the WIC infant and toddler feeding practices study-2
Presenters: Courtney Paolicelli, Christine Borger, Lorrene Ritchie, Shannon Whaley
Oral presentation, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 9:50-10:10 AM PDT
- Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children receiving WIC
Presenters: Christine Borger, Shannon Whaley, Lorrene Ritchie
Oral presentation, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 10:10-10:30 AM PDT - Longer participation in WIC is associated with healthier outcomes for children at age 4 years
Presenters: Shannon Whaley, Christine Borger, Lauren Au, Lorrene Ritchie
Oral presentation, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 10:30-10:50 AM PDT
Other topics:
- Exploring housing and food insecurity among California university students: A holistic and comprehensive definition of students' basic needs
Presenters: Suzanna Martinez, Erin Esaryk, Laurel Moffat, Lorrene Ritchie
Oral presentation, Tuesday, October 27, 12:00-12:15 PM PDT - Healthy default beverages in kids' meals: Evaluating policy implementation and impact in California and Delaware
Presenters: Allison Karpyn, Wendi Gosliner, Laura Lessard, Kathleen McCallops, Marisa Tsai, Tara Tracy, Phoebe Harpainter, Danielle Lee, Anna Martin, Lorrene Ritchie, Gail Woodward-Lopez
Oral presentation, Tuesday, October 27, 4:45-5:00 PM PDT - Perceived produce availability and child fruit and vegetable intake: The healthy communities study
Presenters: Laurel Moffat, Lorrene Ritchie, Wendi Gosliner, Kaela Plank, Lauren Au
Oral presentation, Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 10:15-10:30 AM PDT - Limited progress found in healthy checkout among food stores in economically disadvantaged California neighborhoods, 2011-2017
Presenters: Wendi Gosliner, Sriddharshi Hewawitharana, Janice Kao, Sadie Costello, Gail Woodward-Lopez
Poster presentation - A replication study of school-based SNAP-ed programmatic efforts to address student nutrition and physical activity outcomes
Presenters: John Pugliese, Lauren Whetstone, Sridharshi Hewawitharana, Gail Woodward-Lopez
Poster presentation