National PTA seeks School Nutrition Policy Fellow:

http://www.pta.org/about/content.cfm?ItemNumber=4131


United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth
The National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) Alliance, in collaboration with the American College of Sports Medicine, released the first-ever United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. "The primary goal of the Report Card "is to assess levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviors in American children, youth, facilitators and barriers for physical activity, and related health outcomes."

Highlights of the grading:
·        Overall Physical Activity D-
·        Sedentary Behavior D
·        Schools C-
·        Active Transportation F
·        Community and the Built Environment B-

Great new resource from NASBE on how schools work and how to work with them:
http://www.nasbe.org/project/center-for-safe-and-healthy-schools/how-schools-work/

Below are a few tweets and FB posts that you can use to promote the resource.

Tweets:
To know one school is to know one school.  Figure out how the entire system works!  #HowSchoolsWork http://ow.ly/x6BXD

Frustrated by trying to collaborate across agencies and departments?  @NASBE's #HowSchoolsWork can help! http://ow.ly/x6BXD

Trying to work with the education system?  @NASBE explains #HowSchoolsWork, and how to work with schools. http://ow.ly/x6BXD

@NASBE's new resources helps connect health and education to meet the full range of student needs.  #HowSchoolsWork http://ow.ly/x6BXD

Facebook:
How Schools Work and How to Work with Schools is a NASBE resource, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that assists anyone that would like to work with schools to improve the health, safety and well-being of children and youth in schools. http://ow.ly/x6BXD

Are you interested in working with the education system but not sure how to get started?  How Schools Work and How to Work with Schools is a NASBE resource, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that can help!  It gives a comprehensive description of the education system as well as tips for meeting and working with education decision makers.  http://ow.ly/x6BXD

New Bridging the Gap study (attached) looks at state comp foods policies in comparison to smart snacks standards.

A few highlights from the research:

·        16 states have laws that fully meet at least one USDA provision. On average, the 16 states meet four provisions. Massachusetts meets the most—9 provisions.
·        10 additional states have laws that partially meet one or more provisions (e.g., the law meets or surpasses USDA’s standard for elementary school students but not older children).

States were more likely to meet guidelines for beverages than for snack foods:

·        14 states have laws that meet at least one beverage standard
·        9 states meet at least one food standard

Also, the smart snack success stories from the Healthy Schools Program are now available at http://www.rwjf.org/en/research-publications/find-rwjf-research/2014/05/smart-snacks-in-school.html. Please share far and wide.