Summer Food, Summer Moves: Helping Kids Stay Healthy When School is Out

Recorded Sunday, July 31, 2016. 
Moderator: Maya Maroto, EdD, MPH, RD, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
Speaker: Alicia White, MS, RD, USDA Food and Nutrition Service; Sally Spero, Lakeside Union School District; Maya Maroto, EdD, MPH, RD, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
During the school year, over 30 million children in the United States receive meals through school lunch programs. When the school year ends, food insecurity becomes more prevalent among school-aged children. The Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Option of the National School Lunch Program help alleviate the summer nutrition gap and make meals accessible to children over the summer months. Offering nutrition education and physical activities at summer meal sites may help increase summer meal participation, while teaching healthy behaviors. This session will highlight new formative research about summer meal programs and practical strategies for nutrition education.
Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to describe the USDA summer meal programs and best practices for meal service and nutrition education.Participants will be able to discuss formative research findings regarding parents’ perceptions about their child’s eating and physical activity habits during the summer as compared to the school year.Participants will be able to access free nutrition education resources for summer meal programs.