CalFresh Healthy Living aims to improve students' health and wellbeing through interventions that promote healthy eating and physical activity. In 2023-24, 92 school and school-based after school sites partnered with the local health department in their county to implement and evaluate CalFresh Healthy Living Programming. To measure program outcomes, students reported their dietary intake and physical activity behaviors on a self-administered survey before and after the programming. An infographic developed by the Nutrition Policy Institute describes the sample of students who participated in the evaluation and summarizes changes in their nutrition and physical activity behaviors. The infographic demonstrates a number of behavior changes, including:

• Whole fruit consumption increased by 0.5 times per day
• Sugary drink consumption decreased by 0.5 times per day
• The number of students achieving 60min of daily physical activity increased by 16%

Learn more about NPI's work to evaluate the CalFresh Healthy Living program.

The American Public Health Association's 2024 Annual Meeting & Expo will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota from October 27-29, 2024 to gather nearly 13,000 public health professionals to connect, learn, and inspire each other. This year's conference centers on "Rebuilding Trust in Public Health and Science," focusing on the challenges posed by political polarization, underfunding, and distrust in scientific research. Nutrition Policy Institute researchers will present recent findings on school recess and physical education and universal school meal policies. A list of the live oral presentations is found below.

• Not all fun and games: Disparities in school recess persist and must be addressed
  • Authors: Hannah Thompson, Rebecca London
  • Date: Monday, October 28, 11:00 - 11:15 a.m. CDT. Oral presentation by Hannah Thompson

• Statewide universal school meals policies are associated with greater household food security
  • Authors: Dania Orta-Aleman, Monica Zuercher, Lorrene Ritchie, Juliana Cohen, Wendi Gosliner
  • Date: Tuesday, October 29, 9:10 - 9:30 a.m. CDT. Oral presentation by Dania Orta-Aleman

• Impact of a multilevel, multicomponent intervention to improve elementary school physical education on student cardiorespiratory fitness
  • Authors: Hannah Thompson, Kristine Madsen, Caroline Nguyen, Thomas McKenzie, Sally Picciotto
  • Date: Wednesday, October 30, 8:30 - 8:45 a.m. CDT. Oral presentation by Hannah Thompson

An article in EdSource by Hannah Thompson of the Nutrition Policy Institute and Rebecca London of the University of California Santa Cruz discussed the impacts of the “Recess for All” law in California schools. The law requires at least 30 minutes of recess in elementary schools and bans taking away recess as punishment. Research in education and child development has found that recess benefits behavioral, mental, and physical health in students. Surveys of students have found that recess is a popular subject statewide. Recess also helped students recover from social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. It can help students develop interpersonal skills and later focus in the classroom and improve learning. The “Recess for All” law has helped create equity among schools, as students of color and in low-income areas have historically had less recess time. However, the benefits of recess have been underestimated with the rise in standardized testing and decrease in recess and arts during the No Child Left Behind era. Hopefully, with the support of parents and students, the “Recess for All” law can be implemented equally throughout California elementary schools.

A new research brief developed by the Nutrition Policy Institute highlights promising school-based CalFresh Healthy Living—California's SNAP-Ed program—physical activity interventions. The study used latent class analysis to describe the predominant combinations of CFHL physical activity interventions implemented in California public schools in partnership with local health departments. Using Fitnessgram data from over 440,000 students in nearly 4,300 schools, the researchers assessed whether intervention combinations were associated with student cardiorespiratory fitness, as measured by V0₂ max. The study found that students in schools with CFHL interventions focused on establishing or improving wellness policies and increasing opportunities for physical activity had better cardiorespiratory fitness than students in schools without CFHL interventions or in schools with other types of CFHL intervention combinations. The peer-reviewed study was authored by Sridharshi Hewawitharana, Gail Woodward-Lopez, and Wendi Gosliner from the Nutrition Policy Institute, Punam Ohri-Vachaspati and Francesco Acciai from Arizona State University, and John Pugliese from the California Department of Public Health. The research brief was created by NPI's CalFresh Healthy Living Evaluation Unit, including: Summer Cortez, Reka Vasicsek, Miranda Westfall, and Sridharshi Hewawitharana.