HOST HEPA Roundup, September 16, 2016

The latest in our regular roundups of healthy eating and physical activity news from HOST members and others.

Events

• The Food Research and Action Center is holding a conference call on Making Breakfast Work in the Summer, Thursday, October 6, 2016, at 1:00 p.m. ET. Hear from sponsors and sites that have taken advantage of the opportunity to serve two meals a day during the summer, and how they have made breakfast work for them. Tips and tricks for implementing and expanding breakfast meal service will be explored, and sponsors will share how adding another meal has made their program more financially viable.

News

• The National League of Cities (NLC), in partnership with the Food Research and Action Center, awarded grants to 10 cities in Kansas, Alabama, and California to create or expand programs providing children with afterschool and summer meals, through their Cities Combating Hunger through Afterschool and Summer Meal Programs (CHAMPS) initiative. NLC has already helped 41 cities across the country serve over 10 million meals to 100,000 children over the last five years.
• Share Our Strength has received a $5.75 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to offer a variety of nutrition education programs to low-income families, including six-week-long cooking courses to adults, caregivers, teens, kids and families, offered through community partners.

Research

• The Safe Routes to School National Partnership points out a new study in Preventative Medicine that assessed schools with a policy of shared or open use facilities. It found that most such facilities were empty during non-school hours. Formal programming, however, was positively associated with both use and physical activity levels. The paper says structured physical activity programs may increase the efficacy of shared use, and suggests that community groups in need of space for structured physical activity programs should consider sharing facilities with public schools.
• A new report from the Urban Institute and Feeding America examines how teenagers experience food insecurity. Teens said, among other things, "that they want to see more opportunities that combine food with other programming, such as a movie night where dinner is served, and want programs to use discretion because of the stigma they feel accessing food."

Tips

• The American Heart Association helps us understand food packaging claims.
• It's Time Texas shares ways of "Keeping Kids Happy & Healthy in the New School Year!"
• The Pew Charitable Trusts offer a short quiz to test "Are You School Lunch Savvy?"