To achieve this objective, priority recommendations include increasing the consumption of vegetables and fruits, assuring that worksites provide healthful foods and beverages, and assuring that K-12 schools provide healthful foods and beverages.

The description below illustrates what organizations and communities are doing to increase access to health promoting foods.



The Children's Alliance received a grant from the Center for Public Health Nutrition to increase access to healthful food and beverages in three pilot school districts. Ellensburg, Olympia and Snohomish School Districts have been selected to participate as the pilot school districts for this project. The Children's Alliance will work with these three school districts to evaluate their school nutrition environment and develop and implement policies to make positive changes.

A group of individuals within each school district, including parents, teachers, administrators, food service staff, health care providers, students, and other community members are working together to identify strengths and weaknesses of the district's nutrition environment and determine what changes need to be made. We will use the School Health Index, an assessment tool developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to assist them in evaluating one middle school in each of their districts. Each district will then prioritize improvements they want to make to their nutrition environment, and implement one change during the 2003-2004 school year. The School Health Index is designed to lead to policy changes within a school environment.

For more information:

Kara Ludlow, RD
Shelley Curtis, MPH, RD
Children's Alliance




This one-year project included a needs assessment and resource development to address prevention and management of obesity targeting specific age groups (preschool, school-age, teens) and the Hispanic-Latino and African-American communities. Gaining an understanding of barriers, needs and recommendations perceived by families and providers should guide development of additional resources and programs to meet the State plan objectives around physical activity and nutrition.

Focus groups involved healthcare providers, teens and parents at four sites in Washington. A key theme reinforced the social-ecological framework of the State plan. This framework stresses that environmental factors are critical determinants to healthy lifestyles. Moreover, the social-economic model stresses that a single management approach to childhood obesity does not fit all communities. Specific outcomes include new resources that can be accessed at Children's Obesity Action:
  • Culturally-responsive healthy eating/activity "packets" for families
  • Indoor Activity Toolkit
  • Provider Toolkit to help address healthy eating/activity with families

    New programs with partners:
  • Community-based curricula for families on healthy lifestyles (Childcare centers; YMCA)
  • Provider skills workshops
  • Multifaceted Management Model that links community organizations, community providers/teams and tertiary care
  • Local resource directories and community coalitions

    Project partners include: Odessa Brown Children's Clinic - Seattle, Children's Village - Yakima, Central WA Hospital - Wenatchee, American Heart Association, WA State Dairy Council, YMCA of Greater Seattle, and the WA Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

    For more information:

    Mo Pomietto, MN, RN
    Children's Obesity Action Team (COAT)
    Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center

    • This publication was supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number U58/CCU019291 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.


    Last updated: April 3, 2004