Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) Toolkit for Community Educators

The Toolbox lessons were pilot tested to the target audience, mostly with Latinas in San Diego area, prior to its publication. The findings showed that the lessons were clear and easily understood by the target audience. Moreover, the findings showed that the lessons were linguistically and culturally-appropriate and had educational value.

Available in Chinese, Hmong, and Spanish. Previous version titled "Fruit, Vegetable, and Physical Activity Toolbox". Comments based on previous version: The main components of the kit include a binder containing lessons on nutrition, physical activity and community empowerment, handouts, and an evaluation tool. Other resources incorporated in the kit include a poster, Produce Guide, fruit and vegetable recommendation tool, fruit/vegetable/physical activity playing cards, a CD, DVDs, and pamphlets.

The curriculum begins with two key lessons that focus on the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables, and recommended amount of physical activity for adults. These lessons are followed by seven nutrient lessons, a community empowerment lesson, six physical activity lessons, reproducible educational handouts, and an evaluation. The physical activity lessons incorporate various low cost exercises. Physical activity handouts include exercise and dance explanations with pictures. Also, the Seasonality Guide includes information specific to the state of California.

The first two lessons should be completed first and after that, lessons can be completed in any order. For evaluation purposes, a brief, seven-question nutrition and physical activity quiz is included to measure participants’ knowledge. The quiz can be administered before and after the program is completed. An answer key is not included; however, the answers can be found in the curriculum.

*SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions: An Obesity Prevention Toolkit for States is a compilation of interventions. The toolkit was developed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, The Association of SNAP-Ed Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Training and Research Translation (Center TRT), and the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the USDA. It is designed and updated to help state SNAP-Ed administrative and implementing agencies identify evidence-based obesity prevention programs and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies and interventions to include in their SNAP-Ed plans.