Schools are an ideal setting for policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches to childhood obesity prevention. An initial assessment of a school's health environment, policies, and practices is critical for planning and identifying priority PSE interventions, while reassessment can be used to identify measurable change for ongoing planning and evaluation purposes. School-based obesity prevention programs need an assessment that measures wellness policy implementation and compliance at the school level, as required by the Local School Wellness Policy Implementation Final Rule of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The assessment must comprehensively assesses school nutrition and physical activity practices, and have the measurement properties necessary to detect change over time and differences between schools. Nutrition Policy Institute researchers shared the development and psychometric testing of a site-level questionnaire for elementary schools that fills this gap in an article published December 20, 2021 in the journal Childhood Obesity. Elementary schools and their partners can use the new instrument to plan PSE interventions, measure obesity-prevention best practices and wellness policy implementation, and evaluate their progress towards achieving best practices in nutrition and physical activity. Study authors include researchers from the NPI CalFresh Healthy Living evaluation team, Carolyn Rider, Janice Kao, Sridharshi Hewawitharana, Christina Becker, Amanda Linares, and Gail Woodward-Lopez.
The USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) is an evidence-based program that helps low-income individuals live healthier lives through education, social marketing, and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. Known as CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) in California, SNAP-Ed is overseen by the California Department of Social Services and implemented by four state implementing agencies and the local implementing agencies (LIAs) that they fund. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is one of four state implementing agencies and funds 60 local health departments. Beginning in 2018, California's LIAs use the Program Evaluation and Reporting System (PEARS) to report their CFHL activities and interventions. The Nutrition Policy Institute serves as CDPH's evaluation contractor for its CFHL program; NPI's PEARS team, Carolyn Rider, Janice Kao, Evan Talmage, and Christina Becker, provide technical and evaluation assistance to CDPH and its LIAs for PEARS reporting. They authored a new report which presents the background, definitions, and methods used by CDPH and its funded local health departments for reporting CFHL interventions implemented throughout California during Federal Fiscal Year 2020. The report, titled “Background on Local Health Department Reporting of CalFresh Healthy Living Programs in the Program Evaluation and Reporting System, FFY 2020”, also details challenges in reporting CFHL activities and gives recommendations to improve reporting.
USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed) impacts the lives of participants through education as well as policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change initiatives at schools, early care and education facilities, food banks and pantries, and other community sites. SNAP-Ed, which focuses on individuals and families with low income and the communities in which they live, can improve health equity. However, SNAP-Ed interventions were dramatically impacted in 2020 by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers at the Nutrition Policy Institute presented relevant research findings at the 2021 National Health Outreach Conference, held virtually on May 3-7, 2021. Their presentation, entitled 'Challenges and Opportunities for SNAP-Ed Programs during the COVID-19 Pandemic', described the ways in which California's local health departments shifted their SNAP-Ed efforts, barriers that COVID-19 created in their PSE work, and factors that facilitated new and continued efforts. Despite a 37% reduction in the number of SNAP-Ed sites reached in 2020 when compared to each of the previous two years, many successful PSE efforts were implemented by local health departments in 2020, including new interventions at numerous sites that were initiated in response to COVID-19. A common theme reported in relation to successful efforts was the importance of strong partnerships. NPI's Carolyn Rider presented these findings in collaboration with NPI researchers Janice Kao, Christina Becker, Evan Talmage, and Gail Woodward-Lopez.
The COVID-19 pandemic had both positive and negative impacts on the implementation of the California Department of Public Health's CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) activities over the past year. CFHL, known nationally as SNAP-Ed, supports healthy, active, and nourished lifestyles by teaching Californians about good nutrition and how to stretch their food dollars, while also building partnerships in communities to make the healthy choice, the easy choice. CFHL activities are implemented by California's Local Health Departments (LHDs) and other agencies. Researchers at the University of California (UC) Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on CFHL efforts using data gathered in the Program Evaluation and Reporting System (PEARS), a tool used by CFHL professionals to track policy, systems, and environmental change efforts (often referred to as PSE), direct nutrition education, indirect education, partnerships, and multi-sector coalitions. In addition, NPI researchers surveyed 54 LHDs in October 2020 to understand more about how the pandemic impacted their programs. Evaluation results showed that LHDs found new ways to deliver CFHL interventions during COVID‐19, building on existing capacity and branching out into new areas, including developing new sites and partners, developing new skills to implement programming virtually, and developing novel food procurement and distribution mechanisms. NPI researchers presented results from their evaluation in a March 23, 2021 webinar, titled Challenges and Opportunities for Local Health Departments Implementing CalFresh Healthy Living during a Pandemic, with over 50 state agency and LHD staff in attendance. The webinar was hosted by the NPI PEARS team, including Carolyn Rider, Janice Kao, Christina Becker, and Evan Talmage in collaboration with Jennifer Murphy and Kylie Gacad from California State University, Chico, Anna Luciano from Orange County Health Care Agency, and Jessica Bellow and Gaby Gregg, from Community Action Partnership of Orange County. The webinar slides and recording are available online.
Child care sites, schools, and out-of-school programs are important targets for health promotions and practices to support children in healthy eating and physical activity. Cooperative Extension programs often partner with these settings to implement the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) policy, systems, and environment (PSE) interventions. Researchers at the Nutrition Policy Institute have developed a new set of tools to support Extension professionals in measuring and supporting SNAP-Ed program planning and evaluation efforts. The tools, called the site-level assessment questionnaires (SLAQs), assesses institutional healthful eating and physical activity practices in child care sites, schools, and out-of-school programs. In their latest study published in Journal of Extension titled "Assessing Healthful Eating and Physical Activity Practices in Places Children Learn", NPI researchers describe the development and feasibility testing of the new SLAQs tools. The questionnaires are available in two formats: a printable Word document that can be shared by multiple staff involved in completing the questionnaire (recommended for schools) and an online survey which can be completed live or from a pre-filled Word document questionnaire. Visit the NPI SLAQs website to gain access to the questionnaires and training materials. The questionnaire developed for schools can be used by schools to self-assess alignment with the final rule of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which outlines school wellness requirements for local educational agencies and schools participating in the USDA National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Study co-authors include NPI researchers Carolyn D. Rider, Amanda Linares, Janice Kao, Christina Becker, and Gail Woodward-Lopez. The study was funded by a grant from the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education.