Healthy Kids Challenge has launched a nationwide campaign to recognize meaningful partnerships and collaborations that are successfully making a healthy difference for kids!

Healthy Kids 2010, Let’s Begin…
A call to action Challenge for each of us to do our part in making it possible for America’s youth to be healthier by the year 2010.

Join Healthy Kids Challenge to meet the challenge with partnerships, collaboration, pooling of resources, and strong but fun, simple healthy messages spoken in unison.

While a primary Healthy Kids Challenge organizational strategy has always been networking and the development of partnerships, it is now time to Take the Challenge in industry, the educational realm, through the community, and at home.

We salute HKC past or present collaborators for children’s health and look forward to others stepping up to join us for the Healthy Kids 2010 campaign! We invite your corporation or organization to contact us and learn how you too can get involved and become a Partner in Health with Healthy Kids Challenge!

Best Practice Solutions with HKC

Here is a look at key current and past collaborations with Healthy Kids Challenge that have truly created best practice solutions for kids and their families.

CIGNA
CIGNA is a national sponsor of Healthy Kids Challenge. CIGNA has joined with Healthy Kids Challenge to develop and co-brand programs that drive behavioral change among elementary age kids and their families in an effort to increase healthy eating choices and physical activity.

Fit and Fun Family Toolkits
Now beginning the third year of the collaboration, two examples of the CIGNA and Healthy Kids Challenge co-branded programs are the Fit and Fun Family Toolkit for healthcare providers, and an adapted version for employers.

Take the Challenge School Showcase Program
Many best practices in schools have happened thanks to the support of the CIGNA Foundation. The Foundation is providing support to expand the reach of the Take the Challenge School Program by funding schools in 6 cities the past two years and ongoing. These markets include Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Richmond. Read more about the Showcase Program, SpotLights and the best practices implemented by these and other schools.

Mission Foods
There has been a dramatic increase in childhood obesity in the United States during the past 20 years. In response to this, Mission Foods, one of the leading tortilla manufacturers in the US, is partnering with Healthy Kids Challenge to educate moms on how to create easy, nutritious recipe ideas in order to combat the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.

For 2008, Mission has teamed up with HKC national spokesperson and Cheetah Girl, Sabrina Bryan, to get the HKC message out to families about getting active and making healthier food choices. Mission Foods will be a co-sponsor this fall of 2008 as HKC introduces its first large-scale national event which supports being active through dance, Healthy Kids Dance for Health™. In addition, Mission will co-sponsor HKC’s 2008-09 recipe contest, Stirring Up Health™, an annual nationwide recipe contest for 7th & 8th grade students. Mission hopes to help students learn the fundamentals of how to make healthy food choices for themselves.

“Mission aims to increase awareness about the importance of physical activity and nutrition by joining with HKC to support its objective of helping students make a healthy difference in their lives,” said Tom Gray, Senior Brand Director for Mission Foods. “We recognize the value of providing busy moms with a variety of tortilla products that will meet their need of creating delicious and healthy meals for their families.”

This collaboration with HKC is part of Mission’s ongoing commitment to align itself with organizations that believe in providing healthy options for all of our children. Mission has been a valuable partner for moms, creating simple yet healthy recipe ideas using tortillas, a product that’s naturally low in fat. Visit Mission Foods’ Web site www.missionmenus.com and click on “Tips and Tricks” to hear Sabrina Bryan, HKC's national spokesperson, discuss the importance of healthy eating and learn some of her favorite healthy recipes.

Cabot Creamery
Cabot Creamery is teaming up with Healthy Kids Challenge to promote the Healthy Kids Challenge 2008-09 middle school student recipe contest, Stirring Up Health™. Cabot's dedication to health and nutrition started over a decade ago when new research was released on the nation’s calcium crisis, backed by statistics showing that nearly 9 out of 10 girls and 7 out of 10 boys don’t meet daily calcium recommendations. Since then, Cabot has developed several programs targeted at teens and pre-teens to get the word out on the need for dietary calcium for lifelong bone health and overall wellness. These programs include both a Girl Scout calcium patch program and a school assembly program called “Calcium is Cool” with celebrity, Chef Jon Ashton, who promotes and teaches middle school students how to eat healthier at home.

“We love that HKC promotes healthy eating by encouraging students to create healthy recipes and practice cooking skills with its Stirring Up Health™ recipe contest – these are skills that will last these students a lifetime,” said Sara Wing, Dietitian and Health Programs Manager for Cabot Creamery. “Cabot has been educating teens and pre-teens on healthy eating and building strong bodies for over a decade and partnering with HKC on this program was a natural fit.”

Since its beginning in 1919, Cabot Creamery Cooperative has been dedicated to family and promoting community involvement. In fact, today 1400 farm families of Agri-Mark, the Northeast’s premier dairy cooperative, own Cabot, which is best known as makers of “The World’s Best Cheddar.” For additional information on Cabot Creamery, their education programs, recipes and more, visit www.cabotcheese.coop.

AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca and Healthy Kids Challenge are joining in message and taking action together to educate families about identifying and managing gastroesophageal acid reflux disease, commonly known as GERD, which affects roughly two to eight percent of children in the United States. AstraZeneca and Healthy Kids Challenge, have launched the “Healthy Kids, Healthy Families” national GERD awareness program. The program’s Web site, www.HealthyKidz.com, provides information and tools to help parents better understand GERD and work with their child’s healthcare professional to develop a treatment plan. Click for press release information here.

As kids across the country went back to school, 250 elementary schools were excited to find an added surprise in their mailbox! Through the partnership between Healthy Kids Challenge and AstraZeneca, Habits for Health, a new educational campaign designed to teach children about healthy habits both at home and school; provided these schools, including families of the students, with resources and tools that promote healthy eating and physical activity. Two of the resources in the Habits for Health toolkit are provided for you here. Habits for Health Family Tips and Habits for Health School Tips. Share these family and school healthy tips with others!

Excitement and laughter filled the air as the Habits for Health campaign offered two lucky schools, one in Orlando, Florida, and one in Kansas City, Missouri, a special family night event. Ready, Set, Cook, and Eat™ is a fun cook-off where each team is given a "surprise" bag of ingredients and limited time and cooking resources to prepare a healthy dish. GERD-friendly ingredients were included in the grocery bags to help kids and families better understand how to prepare quick, simple, “on the go” foods that are healthy and tasty too! Check out this action-packed event at http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/specialevents.php

Another great campaign event was the Healthy Kids Can Cook Recipe Contest. AstraZeneca and HKC asked kids, ages 12-17, who enjoyed getting creative in the kitchen, to put on their chef hat and prepare a GERD-friendly, original recipe. Recipe entries varied from appetizers to desserts, but all were made with ingredients that are healthy for people with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The winner enjoyed a gourmet, GERD-friendly meal prepared for her and her family by a renowned chef. See the winning recipe at http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/hkcc.php.

School Health Corporation
Designed for healthcare professionals in a school setting, this company has been providing schools with health related products for over 5 decades. School Health Corporation offers more than just band-aids and thermometers. School Health Corporation has one-stop shopping for over 7,000 products and is a leader in introducing new technology to the marketplace. Visionary thinking of how to take school wellness policies from words on paper to actionable steps that can make a healthy difference for kids, has brought HKC and School Health Corporation together. HKC activity booklets are included in the School Health catalog but more importantly, we’re looking beyond products in working together to develop wellness solutions for schools.

In recent years, Healthy Kids Challenge has worked with numerous others in the industry to generate healthy messages, develop tools, activities, and creative lessons for KidLinks™, (adults that work with kids), to make it easier to enjoy healthy eating and physical activity as part of daily life. Best practices were developed through various forms of collaboration with corporations such as Aquafina, Colavita, Kraft, Campbell’s, Friendship Dairy, and National Potato Promotion Board, among others.

HKC and Aquafina developed a collection of hydration tip sheets for educators to use in teaching the important role of water as a beverage. Click here to download the tip sheets. A Wednesday W.O.W.S. HKC E-newsletter topic promoted the value of water as a beverage of choice. Click here to view.

Another example of collaboration was the Friendship Dairy teacher tool. To view and download this classroom tool to help teach fun calcium messages, click here.

Current Educational Initiatives

Field Trip Factory
Field Trip Factory has been a leader in experience-based learning for over 15 years. "We provide community-based field trips, which address a variety of social needs and also support children’s classroom curriculum. We are a proud partner of Healthy Kids Challenge and share their vision in guiding communities to make healthy living a habit for kids and their families." Visit www.fieldtripfactory.com for more information.

FREE Health & Wellness Education at Your
Local Grocery Store
Nationwide, Field Trip Factory is transforming local grocery aisles into learning centers as students sample their way to a healthier lifestyle. Eating healthy, making smart choices and learning how to integrate exercise into daily living are the primary messages of these hands-on field trips. Trips are customized for grades PreK-8. Check out what is available in your area today at www.fieldtripfactory.com 800-987-6409.

Junior League
The Association of Junior Leagues International Inc. (AJLI), with 293 Junior Leagues in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.

In 2006, the Association launched the international initiative, Junior Leagues’ Kids in the Kitchen, http://kidsinthekitchen.ajli.org that aims to impact childhood obesity and poor nutrition by educating the public at the grassroots level. Junior Leagues conduct educational programs in partnership with local community organizations in order to raise awareness and provide solutions for this growing epidemic. HKC is partnering with AJLI to provide educational tools and tips for Junior Leagues’ Kids in the Kitchen leaders. Providing kids hands-on experience with cooking skills helps develop healthy habits. Check out best practices for ideas to help kids learn by doing.

S.H.I.P. School Health Initiative Project, Williamsburg, Virginia
These days, S.H.I.P. (School Health Initiative Project) is the topic of conversation and action for most people throughout the school district and community of Williamsburg, Virginia. With funding from the local Community Health Foundation, the design for this three year initiative was created by HKC staff working alongside school and community leadership, to follow The Centers for Disease Control and Health Promotion’s recommended Coordinated School Health model approach. With a design that adds more minutes of motion and activity during the school day; healthier a la cart options in the cafeteria; parent, student, and staff involvement to set personal and team goals; and additional community programs, Williamsburg is making a long range commitment to their children and the future of their community. Take a look at best practices from Williamsburg and other school initiatives.

Kansas Kids C.A.N. (Connect Activity and Nutrition) is a three year grant focusing on adding physical activity and healthy eating components to existing youth programs.
Currently 50 programs from across a 16 county area are participating. Program participants include community libraries, schools, healthcare clinics, county extension, YMCAs, and PHN hospitals themselves. HKC serves as the grant coordinator, training team, and technical support to develop sustainable program practices and networks. Now at the midpoint of the grant, we have seen numerous effective outcomes. Learn more about Kansas Kids C.A.N. in the best practices section.

There is a shift in public need and demand for nutrition services from disease care to disease prevention. Dietetics and the professional competencies identified by the American Dietetic Association (ADA), traditionally, have been focused on clinical care and institutional management. An epidemic increase in the rate of obesity, and other related chronic diseases, has accelerated the need for new dietitian competencies including marketing, assessing, evaluating, and developing health promotion programs.

To begin to answer this need, Healthy Kids Challenge has been awarded a grant by the Topeka, Kansas based Sunflower Foundation: Health Care for Kansans. HKC will collaborate with the Kansas State University department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institutional Management, and Dietetics to develop an online course to help students meet American Dietetic Association specific community competencies including skills for effectively assessing and developing healthy eating and physical activity messages and programs within the community. The course will be one of the first of its kind and is scheduled to begin fall semester 2007 for seniors in the coordinated undergraduate program. Stay tuned for many best practices as students plan and implement programs in various community settings across Kansas!

Cooking Light
Healthy Kids Challenge, the nation's leading school-based health initiative, and Cooking Light have joined forces to encourage children and families to make healthy eating and physical activity a lifetime habit. The credibility and wide reach of Cooking Light, through its monthly publication, active web site and ongoing programs, plus its database of thousands of kitchen-tested recipes, provide additional resources and opportunities for the program to grow and affect more Americans. To brainstorm ideas about how your company can become a part of the Healthy Kids Challenge, in affiliation with Cooking Light, call your Cooking Light sales representative.

Our educational partners are essential to the success and progress of HKC. While not directly providing financial support for the HKC organization, these local, regional, and national associations and agencies offer resources, networking, creditability, and a mutual collaboration. Educational partners are the spokespersons for the nation when it comes to kids eating and physical activity issues. They set the tone and the stage, and Healthy Kids Challenge utilizes the expertise and experience of these leaders to further the effort to promote healthy eating and physical activity for kids and their families.

The J&W-HKC combo is an awesome example of an educational partnership! Combine J&W, a leading culinary school that has produced such great chefs as Emeril, and stir with HKC, a successful organization that guides youth leadership in finding fun solutions for making healthy living a habit and what do you get? A great product!

J&W has been known for their highly touted senior high school recipe contest, attracting some of the best and brightest future chefs to participate in a recipe contest that provides top winners full scholarships to this prestigious culinary school. J&W discovered, however, that the focus on food and interest in the kitchen needed to start far before senior high school, thus, entered HKC! HKC guided the process to develop a similar recipe contest for middle school kids, the Healthy Heritage Recipe Contest. Regional winners received a visit to their school from a J&W chef and together, the student and chef prepared the winning recipe for peers, parents, and school staff. This was truly a HKC style event complete with awareness, skill building, and an opportunity to practice food preparation and enjoyment of healthy foods.

OrganWise Guys Partnership

Would you ever imagine that HKC found a GREAT Partner in Health in a heart, 2 kidneys, lungs, a bone, a brain, and other body parts? Yes, Wellness Incorporated and the OrganWise Guys have been wonderful Partners in Health for many years now. OWG fun, educational tools for teaching a healthy lifestyle are used in many HKC program and initiatives. Hardy Heart, Sid and Kid Kidney, the kidney brothers, their friend Wendy the Lung, pal Calci M. Bone, and the REAL brain behind the group, Sir Rebrum, just to mention a few, are the adorable puppet characters that make learning about healthy eating and being active come to life. HKC dietitians serve as nutrition consultants and content editors for the development of OWG materials. These tools range from videos to music, games, school assembly kits and activity booklets. The OrganWise Guys have won the Cooper Institute Gold Award for outstanding programming in providing key messages in a fun way to help prevent childhood obesity and reduce the risk of other chronic diseases.

Learn more about our Educational Partners

Healthy Kids Challenge has rolled up their sleeves to go to work in 2007 for America’s kids. We’re actively speaking out, encouraging a return to balance, the enjoyment of food and beverage, smart serving sizes, healthy choice options, and FUN physical activity all as part of a healthy lifestyle. But, we need YOU!

How can your company or organization help HKC reach the goal of Healthier Kids by 2010? Click here to get more information about becoming a HKC Partner in Health.