CalFresh Healthy Living Evaluation
For over a decade, the Nutrition Policy Institute worked in partnership with the California Department of Public Health and local health departments to evaluate CDPH’s portion of California’s SNAP-Ed program, CalFresh Healthy Living.
Evaluation legacy and enduring resources: Through this longstanding partnership, NPI supported local health departments and their community partners in collecting, monitoring, and reporting data to demonstrate the reach and effectiveness of CFHL interventions. NPI also designed and conducted evaluation studies to assess implementation, outcomes, and impact—sharing findings to inform future SNAP-Ed and public health efforts.
Although national SNAP-Ed funding will sunset in federal fiscal year 2026, many of the evaluation tools, guidance documents, and resources developed through this work continue to offer value for local health departments and their partners engaging in nutrition and physical activity promotion efforts. Evergreen materials and resources are available below.
Questionnaires to measure individual-level outcomes of education and/or policy, systems, and environmental change interventions
Youth survey
Questionnaires to assess setting-specific nutrition and physical activity environments
Assessment questionnaires for settings where youth go to learn have been adapted for use beyond CalFresh Healthy Living. These include questionnaires for school districts, schools, early care and education sites and out-of-school time programs. The accompanying overview document (coming soon) provides an introduction, instructions, and guidance for usage outside of California. Each questionnaire file also includes a scoring workbook with instructions for how to score each question and section. You can use the Action Planning Tool to translate your completed assessments and summary scores into clear next steps to guide program planning.
School districts (coming soon)
Schools (coming soon)
Early care and education (coming soon)
Out-of-school time (coming soon)
Retail - The retail assessment tools posted here were originally designed for CFHL retail food stores. These materials can also be adapted for non-CFHL use.
Retail SLAQ tool with scoring explanation (coming soon)
Retail SLAQ data collection protocol (coming soon)
Retail SLAQ interview questions (coming soon)
For questions about any of the Assessment Questionnaires tools or resources, contact Janice Kao at jankao@ucanr.edu. If using or adapting any of these materials, please let us know and also provide appropriate credit to NPI.
Recognition for best practices in healthy eating and active living
Leaders in Eating and Activity Practices (LEAP) was an awards program developed by Nutrition Policy Institute to recognize SNAP-Ed sites annually for their achievements in meeting best practices for healthy eating and physical activity. Awards were determined by practices measured on site-level assessment questionnaires (SLAQs). While this awards framework was developed for SNAP-Ed, it can serve as a model for a range of community programs and partnerships that promote health through policy, systems, and environmental changes.
Digital promotions package (coming soon)
This section includes tools and resources to support practitioners in translating data into clear, compelling messages for diverse audiences through effective data storytelling and communication products.
Data Storytelling Toolkit
LHD data story template – available formatted in Canva and as plain text
Youth outcomes infographic template (Canva)
This web-tool provides estimates of CalFresh Healthy Living intervention reach for indirect activities or Policy, Systems, and Environmental Changes (PSEs) in retail settings. The estimates provided by this web-tool are based on Fermi Estimates and considers factors such as a site’s surrounding population and the density of competing stores.
How to use the retail reach webtool (coming soon)