Kindergarten Nutrition Program Makes a Difference

Guided by market research conducted in 1997, the Dairy Council of California developed a kindergarten Nutrition Education program titled, Building a healthy me! Stacking up choices for good nutrition. The program was developed and pilot-tested during the 1997-1998 school year. More extensive field-testing was conducted in forty-five public and private classrooms during the 1998-1999 school year. The purpose of this field-testing was to determine the effectiveness of the program and make additional program modifications if needed. The following summarizes the highlights of our field testing results.

About Building a Healthy Me! Stacking Up Choices for Good Nutrition
The purpose of this program is to introduce children a range of healthy food choices and the idea that choosing healthy, good-tasting foods each day is an important habit to establish. Parents are provided with information that will support them in their role to establish, promote, and model healthful eating habits for their child.

The fundamental nutrition concepts introduced in the lessons include:

1. What is the USDA's MyPyramid?
2. Which foods belong to each food groups and what are combination foods
3. The importance of breakfast
4. What are combination foods?
5. Simple recipe preparation
6. Choosing food group foods for meals or snacks

The materials included in the lessons at the time of the field test were a teacher overview with six lessons, extension activities and blackline masters, newsletter bites for parent newsletters, parent booklets in English and Spanish and a box of multi-cultural food pictures.

Program Goals
For Parents

• use USDA's MyPyramid food guidance system as a model 
• understand roles and responsibilities of providing healthy food 
• utilize simple recipes for snacks and meals 
• understand the importance of shared meals

For Students

• recognize foods from food groups
• expand the variety of foods they choose
• develop simple food preparation skills
• includes snacks as part of healthy habits
• understand importance of shared meals

How We Structured the Field Test
Field-testing was conducted in forty-five public and private classrooms in California. Program feedback was collected from three groups: teachers, parents and students. Parents and students completed two surveys (pre and post-tests). These tests assessed their knowledge before and after the program was taught. Teachers completed a survey including their reaction to the program, their student's reaction to the program and questions regarding the strategies used in the program. Students completed the tests in class. Parent surveys were sent home via the kindergartner.

Who Participated in the Evaluation?
The self-reported ethnicity of the participants in the two largest parent groups were Caucasian (55%) and Hispanic (31%). Respondents were fairly evenly divided between low and middle income levels with 40 percent reporting a low income level and 49 percent reporting a middle income level. Only 11 percent of the sample characterized their income level as high. The parent sample was relatively well educated, with a fairly even divide among "some college" and "college graduates". Education levels ranged from eighth grade or less to post graduate. 

What We Learned
Teachers noted the following changes in their student's eating patterns and/or nutrition knowledge:

• students were eating breakfast more frequently - 19%
• students were increasing their food choices from each of the food groups - 17%
• students were choosing healthier snacks from the food groups - 23%

Parents noted the following:

• child now requested breakfast - 27%
• child requested snacks from food groups - 17%
• child talked about food from the food groups - 41%
• child wanted to help prepare simple foods - 39%
• parent information influenced their meal choices for the family - 62%

In looking at the Student pre vs. post-tests the following results have been identified:

• 62% of students improved their over-all scores on the post-test
• the students identified that the Food Guide Pyramid shows healthy food choices 53% pre-test vs. 83% post-test
• the students identified that "before eating I wash my hands" always 58% pre-test vs. 73% post-test
• the students identified that "breakfast is something I should have" every day 70% pre-test vs. 80% post-test
• students identified that a combination food has more than one food group 67% pre-test vs. 85% post-test
• students identified that the milk and milk products group helps their bones stay healthy 52% pre-test vs. 65% post-test 

How did we use this information?
DCC used this information to improve the program and make it more user friendly. Specifically:

• Parent booklets are modified to be less wordy and more interactive 
• A more formalized teacher's guide was created that includes a scope and sequence
• A student workbook was created to reduce photocopying and teacher preparation time
• A poster was added to reduce teacher preparation time

If you would like a more complete report of field test results, contact us at info(###)dairycouncilofca.org