Impact:
Early Care
2019 - 2020
86 Sites, 5,357 children, 780 teachers
The first five years of life are critical to a child’s growth and development – and chances at a healthy future.
HealthMPowers offers a comprehensive, multi-year approach to enriching the lives of children in early care and home learning centers, ensuring young learners get more of what they need to thrive today and tomorrow.
Results from our 2019-2020 Health Empowered centers reveal:
Transforming Environments
- Centers implemented 164 new policies and processes to improve nutrition and physical activity
- 92% of centers improved nutrition support
- 81% of centers improved physical activity support
- 78% of centers improved both nutrition and physical activity support
Empowering Healthy Habits (reported by teachers)
- 90% met national guidelines for physical activity
- 82% met national recommendations for fruit consumption
In addition to our multi-year, SNAP-Ed funded model, we brought Eat.Move.Talk! programming to early care centers across the state reaching 100 centers and 800 preschoolers, their teachers and families.
Family Engagement
Reaching families is a critical part of empowering healthy habits for children. Last year, families from 181 Early Care and Elementary sites were engaged through family presentations on healthy eating and nutrition that reached 11,542 participants, and “Weekly Wellness” text messaging reaching 2,943 new participants. These resources enable family members to model healthy physical activities and nutrition for their children, encouraging active instruction about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
After participating in the Early Care family text messaging program:
- 56% plan to eat more vegetables and 54% plan to eat more fruits.
- 73% plan to be more physically active.