AFTER-SCHOOL FOOD AND ACTIVITY ENVIRONMENT
ENACT STRATEGY: Physical Activity
Provide time to engage in a variety of physical activity options
Regular physical activity is linked with improved mood, ability to focus, and higher energy levels. After-school programs represent an opportunity to integrate activity, regardless of their specific program goals. Due to the often greater flexibility in the types of physical activity options they can offer, after school programs can cater to children's interests and diversity in a way that schools often cannot. From martial arts to dancing to anything in-between, the focus in after-school programs should be on enjoyable activity and movement in many forms. In particular, these programs have the ability to offer options beyond competitive sports which do not appeal to all children. Finally, given the loss of free play in children's lives, structured after-school programs can help meet parental concerns about leaving children on their own or about safety on neighborhood streets.
Children’s Need for Physical Activity: Fact Sheet
An American Heart Association fact sheet highlights recent statistics on how unfit many children are today and the lifelong health risk risks of inactivity.
Energizers: Classroom-based Physical Activities
Developed by the East Carolina University Activity Promotion Laboratory, the "Energizers" are activities that teachers can integrate into their lessons to get kids moving while teaching academic concepts.
CANFit P.H.A.T. Campaign
The California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit) launched the Promoting Healthy Activities Together (P.H.A.T.) Campaign in 2002 "to improve the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors of African-American 10-14 year olds participating in after school programs in the San Francisco Bay Area.”
Sports4Kids Playbook (PDF)
Sports4Kids is dedicated to improving the "health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play." This playbook helps educators integrate play into school and after school curriculums, and to use physical activity as a medium to teach important life skills.
Promoting Healthy Activities Together (P.H.A.T.) Multi Media Kit
Designed by the California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit), this kit provides information and resources to improve the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes,
skills and behaviors of African-American 10-14 year olds participating in after school programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using a community-based approach, the P.H.A.T. campaign embraced music, dance, emceeing, and other elements of hip-hop culture (in community centers, schools, after school programs and other organized settings) to deliver important messages about healthy eating and physical activity.
Building Blocks for Quality Youth Sports (PDF)
Team-Up for Youth’s building blocks are based on a youth development model of Supports and Opportunities established by James P. Connell and Michelle Gambone for the Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD).
Physical Activity and Nutrition in Child Care Settings: A Web Directory for Providers
"This site links child care and afterschool providers to a wide variety of physical activity and nutrition resources. You will find links to activities, lesson plans, healthy recipes, information for parents, and many other downloadable tools that can be used to incorporate physical activity and nutrition into child care and afterschool programs."
Physical Activity for Youth Policy Initiative (PDF), presented by The National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, “seeks to provide a means for advocates and policymakers to address the issue of physical inactivity.” The article contains policy options and policies in action in the areas of after school programs, community programs and community design.
Guidelines for After-School Physical Activity and Intramural Sport Programs
This position paper provides a guide to why after-school programs are important and what is necessary to implement one.
BYA is a community based organization with a mission to provide a secure and nurturing environment for all the children, youth, and families of the surrounding community. Visit the website to learn more about the many ways Berkeley Youth Alternatives has incoporated physical activity and nutrtion into all of its programming, ranging from their state of the art commercial kitchen that will be used for a culinary arts program and to make healthy snacks for the after school program to the sports and fitness academy and Team Nutrition Program.
The California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness (CANFit) Program
CANFIT is a statewide, non-profit organization whose mission is to engage communities and build their capacity to improve the nutrition and physical activity status of California's low-income African American, American Indian, Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander youth 10-14 years old.
PE Central
“Our goal is to provide the latest information about developmentally appropriate physical education programs for children and youth. To combat the high obesity rate, we offer programs like Log It and Get Active Stay Active where teachers register their schools and then students register so they can participate.”
American Association for the Child’s Right to Play
“The American Association for the Child’s Right to Play is the national affiliate of IPA, an international non-governmental organization, founded in Denmark in 1961. It is interdisciplinary and embraces in membership persons of all professions working for or with children. The purpose of IPA/USA is to protect, preserve, and promote play as a fundamental right for all humans.”
“Team-Up for Youth promotes the healthy development of young people by strengthening and expanding youth sports and leveling the playing field to ensure quality sports opportunities for all children and youth.”
Pilot tested at 16 sites in Texas in 1999–2000, this program is a diet and physical activity intervention for elementary school students in after school settings.
Kelder, S., Hoelscher, D. M., Barroso, C. S., Walker, J. L., Cribb, P., and Hu, S. (2005). The CATCH Kids Club: A pilot after-school study for improving elementary students' nutrition and physical activity. Public Health Nutrition, 8, 133–140
Started in 2004, this after school program is designed to provide hands-on, engaging ways to introduce or reinforce healthy eating and physical activity among children in grades K–6 in California.
Takada, E. (2005). Program evaluation: Deal Me In... food and fitness, a self-contained nutrition education and physical activity program for the after-school setting. Sacramento, CA: Dairy Council of California.
**We can only provide links to the article abstracts and not the full text