Let's Go! School Nutrition Workgroups: Regional Partnerships for Improving School Meals

Heidi L Kessler; Jackie Vine; Victoria W Rogers

doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2014.12.007

Let's Go! School Nutrition Workgroups: Regional Partnerships for Improving School Meals

J Nutr Educ Behav. 2015 May-Jun;47(3):278-82. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2014.12.007. Epub 2015 Feb 2.

Authors

Heidi L Kessler¹, Jackie Vine², Victoria W Rogers²

Affiliations

¹ Let's Go!, The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME. Electronic address: kesslh@mmc.org.
² Let's Go!, The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME.

PMID: 25656712
DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2014.12.007

Abstract

This report describes a regional approach for improving the nutritional quality of school meals and increasing the selection of healthier foods. Let's Go! is a childhood obesity prevention program that establishes regional workgroups to develop innovative solutions to improve school meal programs. Let's Go! fosters collaborative decision making, specifically addressing the feasibility of proposed strategies, differences in school environments, and level of readiness for change. This approach led to 77 schools achieving the HealthierUS School Challenge and 130 schools implementing Smarter Lunchrooms techniques in school year 2011-2012. Communities nationwide could use a similar approach to improve school meals.

Keywords: HealthierUS School Challenge; childhood obesity; nutrition; school meals.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child
Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena*
Humans
Lunch*
Nutrition Policy*
Nutritive Value*
Schools*