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Improved Dietary Choices: Youth will be able to: increase physical activity; increase fruit and vegetable consumption; decrease caloric intake from sweetened beverages; decrease consumption of low density foods; improve self-efficacy and mattering. <P>
Increase Food Preparation Skills: Youth will be able to: understand basic principles of food safety; able to identify the parts of a recipe; prepare a nutritious snack; express positive attitudes toward cooking. <P>
Community Involvement: increase volunteers involved in program efforts; increase businesses and organizations involvement in program efforts.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Youth will increase physical activity. Youth will improve dietary choices. Youth will increase food preparation skills. The programs will have an increase in community involvement.
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APPROACH: The long term results of this program will be to reduce the number of children that may become overweight or obese in 3rd through 8th grade. Youth 3rd through 8th grade will be involved in programs implementing the Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE) model with groups of 15 to 25 youth. Youth will be divided into age appropriate groups, 3rd through 5th and 6th though 8th. After 6th though 8th grade students who have taken part in the Choice, Control and Change (C3) portion of the curriculum they will be invited to join a Food Science Club that meets weekly offering LiFE skills and demonstrating these skills at the "Iron Kid Chef" contests held quarterly. Parents and community members will be asked to be part of the Food Science Club, Summer Health Institute, and contests. The Site Coordinator will coordinate this program. Each 6th through 8th grade site has the potential of reaching 100 youth. The 3rd through 5th grade program will meet at least weekly during the school year coordinated by the Program Facilitator. This group will have the potential of reaching 200 youth at each site. Both of these counties have Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program staff that will assist with programming during the summer. The mission of LiFE is to increase scientific conceptual understandings in life sciences; improve attitudes towards science; improve attitudes toward personal health and nature; and promote behavior changes in relation to personal and ecological health. LiFE is a collaboration between Science Education and Nutrition Education programs at Teachers College, Columbia University. Today's children, as tomorrow's adults, need not only solid scientific conceptual understanding, but skills to engage in scientific discussions and to participate in public debate about important issues that involve science and technology. Today's children will also be called upon during their lifetime to make many decisions about health, including how to choose foods and activities for optimal body performance (Contento, et. al., 2007). Project and Site Managers will receive training to increase their understanding and practice of LiFE. These include the social cognitive learning model; self-determination theory; the scientific inquiry learning model employed by LiFE (QuESTA - Question, Experience, Search, Theorizing, Applying to life); and Positive Youth Development (5C's) (Pittman & Lerner). Essential to the success and future sustainability of the project is the development of community through sustainability. Kansas State University Research and Extension (KSRE) will provide technical assistance from the Department of 4-H Youth Development, the Food Science Institute, the Department of Human Nutrition, Community Development, and Diversity Catalyst Team regarding community food systems, healthy and safe food preparation, civic leadership to increase healthy dietary choices, the cultures of race, ethnicity, sustainability and poverty. Master Food and Gardener Volunteers along with collaborators and community members will be included in trainings starting in year two.