Eat Smart, Move More…North Carolina in the Preschool Setting

Initiative Overview

Mission

To reverse the rising tide of obesity and chronic disease among North Carolinians by helping them to eat smart, move more and achieve a healthy weight.

Programs and Resources in the Preschool Setting

Color Me Healthy

Color Me Healthy is a statewide program designed to reach children ages 4 and 5. It provides fun, innovative, interactive learning opportunities on physical activity and healthy eating. It uses color, music and exploration of the senses to teach children that healthy food and physical activity are fun. Color Me Healthy is used in family daycare homes, Head Start classrooms and childcare centers.

More than 5,000 childcare centers use Color Me Healthy, and 40 other states have adopted this program.

Local heath promotion coordinators and Cooperative Extension agents deliver county training and provide technical assistance to childcare providers.

PARTNERS: N.C. Division of Public Health and N.C. Cooperative Extension Service.

Nutritional and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP-SACC)

NAP-SACC is a program aimed at improving nutrition and physical activity environments and practices in child care centers through self-assessment and targeted technical assistance. Goals of the program are to improve nutritional quality of food served, amount and quality of physical activity, staff-child interactions, and center nutrition and physical activity policy

NAP-SACC utilizes three effective approaches:

1. Policy – review, revise and promote change in child care policies
2. Environment – provide technical assistance to enhance child care center practices
3. Communication – provide consistent messages to families and child care providers

PARTNERS: UNC Chapel Hill – Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Schools of Public Health and Medicine, and Department of Nutrition; N.C. Division of Public Health (Physical Activity and Nutrition Branch, Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Branch, and Women’s and Children’s Health Section); N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and N.C. Prevention Partners.

What Is Considered Success?

Policy ensuring adequate physical activity, including physical education, recess and after-school programs
• Policy establishing nutrition standards for all foods available in preschool and childcare facilities
• Child care providers ensure that children participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day
• Child care providers limit consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
• Child care providers limit portion sizes of foods and beverages
• Healthy lifestyles are accepted as the norm, rather than the exception among North Carolina’s youngest children

For more information please visit
www.EatSmartMoveMoreNC.com

Sheree Thaxton Vodicka
(919) 707-5217
sheree.vodicka@ncmail.net