Action for Healthy Kids

Founded in 2002 by 16th U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, Action for Healthy Kids is a nationwide nonprofit that mobilizes schools, families and communities to take actions that lead to healthy eating, physical activity, and healthier schools where kids can thrive. Our vision is a world in which every child is healthy, active and ready to learn. AFHK's grassroots network of more than 140,000 volunteers and champions includes volunteer leaders who serve on AFHK's State Teams in 33 states (plus Washington, D.C.) reaching 40,000 schools across the United States through AFHK programs and resources. Action for Healthy Kids mobilizes a nationwide network of school professiona... read more Founded in 2002 by 16th U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, Action for Healthy Kids is a nationwide nonprofit that mobilizes schools, families and communities to take actions that lead to healthy eating, physical activity, and healthier schools where kids can thrive. Our vision is a world in which every child is healthy, active and ready to learn. AFHK's grassroots network of more than 140,000 volunteers and champions includes volunteer leaders who serve on AFHK's State Teams in 33 states (plus Washington, D.C.) reaching 40,000 schools across the United States through AFHK programs and resources. Action for Healthy Kids mobilizes a nationwide network of school professionals, parents and volunteers to implement healthy eating and physical activity programming in schools that has been shown to improve student health, learning and academic performance. Together, we can make schools places where children, staff, and families-learn and adopt lifelong healthy habits and are better prepared to learn and succeed in school. Our AFHK state teams promote grassroots efforts to employ new systems, inspire new policies and change the health environments and practices of our schools. We provide a full spectrum of resources-including grants for school breakfast, physical activity and playground equipment, health and nutrition curriculum, school gardens, nutrition education materials and more-as well as training for school health teams, administrators, teachers, other school professionals, parents and community members. Our comprehensive flagship program, Game On, provides all the information and resources a school needs to host a successful school health program toward becoming a health-promoting school. All of our programs and efforts are dedicated to achieving the goal of Every Kid Healthy: All U.S. schools provide healthy foods, quality health and physical education, and comprehensive physical activity for all students by 2030. Key Programs AFHK implements the following programs and initiatives that engage students, school staff, parents, health stakeholders and community members in taking actions that improve school health policies and practices while advancing nutrition and physical activity at school and at home: Programs: School Grants for Healthy Kids: AFHK knows that schools have three inter-related needs when it comes to expanding their school nutrition and physical activity efforts: 1) age-appropriate programs and resources to guide program implementation; 2) financial support for program implementation and expansion; and 3) training and activation of grassroots volunteers in support of school health projects that are beyond the capacity of school staff alone. Since 2009, AFHK's School Grants for Healthy Kids program has addressed the second need, offering financial grants to support school wellness program implementations, often providing incentive or "seed" money needed to inspire administrator and volunteer commitments. Our three signature school grants programs are as follows: Game On: Game On is now AFHK's signature school wellness program for all grades K - 12. Game On offers guidance building school health teams, assessing the current wellness environment, setting action plans, implementing projects, and earning recognition for improvements in policies and practices. School Breakfast for Healthy Kids: AFHK provides schools with financial resources and technical assistance to support the implementation of School Breakfast programs to reduce hunger and ensure kids are ready to learn. Programming aims to increase the number of low-income children who eat a healthy school breakfast every day. Parents for Healthy Kids: AFHK educates and empowers parents to be change agents for healthier schools and homes. By building leadership skills, parents learn how best to engage with schools to make critical changes to wellness policies and practices regarding nutrition and physical activity and reinforce these efforts at home. Initiatives: * Every Kid Healthy Week: Sponsored in Congress and included on the Calendar of National Health Observances (http://bit.ly/NHO2016), Every Kid Healthy Week (held annually during the fourth week of April) spotlights school and child health and provides volunteer opportunities to get involved . More than 2 million people and over 5,000 schools have participated since 2013. In 2017, 1,425 Every Kid Healthy Week events in schools were registered in 42 states, with more than 525,611 parent, teacher and student participants. * Corporate Day of Service Events: AFHK engages volunteers of corporate partners to engage in school volunteer opportunities to promote healthy behaviors.