Part of the SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions Toolkit.*
PE-Nut™ is a direct education and PSE change intervention that uses a whole-school approach to motivate students, parents, and educators to be physically active and eat healthier. Physical educators, classroom teachers and school administrators work together to improve nutrition and physical activity in K–5 school settings. The program consists of several components: quality physical education for students, nutrition education in the classrooms, take-home “healthy book bags”; daily school announcements; school and family newsletters; and parent engagement events. The overall goal of PE-Nut™ is to improve the school nutrition environment and affect healthy behavior change, including:
Individual Behavior Changes:
- Increase participation in a physically active lifestyle.
- Increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free or low-fat milk or dairy products.
- Balance caloric intake from food and beverages with calories expended (upper grades).
- Try new foods.
- Choose healthy snacks.
- Wash hands before eating.
- Classroom and School Environment:
Healthy Classroom Parties:
- Non-food rewards
- School staff and Student role modeling
- Healthy classroom and school wide messaging
The PE-Nut™ program was pilot tested with input and review from experts in the field of nutrition, classroom education, physical education, school administration, curriculum development and instructional design. Program outcome evaluations have built the evidence base to establish the PE- Nut™ program as a best practice intervention for changing student behavior to increase the consumption of healthy foods and physical activity.
The overall program outcomes were assessed on the implementation of Healthy Classrooms, Healthy SchoolsTM (currently known as Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities™); Health Through LiteracyTM; Exemplary Physical Education CurriculumTM and Fit BitsTM along with the administrator and parent materials as a whole- school intervention. The success of PE-Nut™ comes from the multi-level approach to the intervention that not only teaches nutrition concepts and promotes physical activity, but also offers students opportunities to apply what they learn by trying healthy foods and by enjoying the benefits of physical activity; and sending the messages into the home for a long lasting impact.
Costs: See ordering page for costs: https://michiganfitness.org/program-materials.
*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.