HOST Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Roundup

The latest in our regular roundups of healthy eating and physical activity news from HOST members and others--now geared towards staying healthy during social isolation.

Tips and Ideas for Staying Healthy and Active

• Action for Healthy Kids offers ideas for "Healthy Activities to Do at Home."
• Alliance for a Healthier Generation suggests "5 Immune-Boosting Foods to Feed Your Family Now."
• Marathon Kids is offering a free, printable Activity Log for people of all ages to track their physical activity.

Stories of Going Virtual 

• Build Our Kids' Success (BOKS) has given its Defenders of Physical Activity award for April to Potter Road School and Lead Trainer SaRah Bowers. After schools in her district were shut down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bowers began providing her Framingham BOKS students with live, virtual BOKS classes.
• The Afterschool Alliance profiles the Boys & Girls Club of Parkersburg, West Virginia, which is continuing to support children and families during the coronavirus outbreak. The club began gathering food for distribution to students even before schools closed, offering uninterrupted meal service until the school district could begin their own meal plans. They’re also partnering with a local community foundation and grocery store to make sure families can get the food and hygiene supplies they need.
• Although After-School All-Stars’ school-based programs shut down as schools closed because of COVID-19, they have shifted their focus to food assistance and virtual learning experiences with a new program, #HappyAtHome.

Research and Professional Development Resources

• A new report from the Urban Institute (via Youth Today) looks at "Strategies and Challenges in Feeding Out-of-School Students," including emerging models and policy implications.
• It's Time Texas is offering a webinar on "Responding to COVID-19: What Texas Communities Are Getting Right," including mobilizing the service and transportation industries to fight hunger. Register here for the event, which will be April 30, 2020, at 10:30 a.m. ET.
• The National AfterSchool Association has partnered with Discovery Education to launch the Virtual Learning Response Fund, which will "provide professional development support to educators to enable the successful transition to virtual learning environments."