Making Changes in Best Practices to Increase Nutrition

Halley Breneman, director of Footprints and Friends, Too in Joplin enrolled her program in the GoNAPSACC project as she was curious how the program measured up to nutrition and physical activity best practices.  

Collaborating with the owner, Christine Baird, Halley and Christine decided to start with the Farm to ECE module of Go NAPSACC. After completing the Farm to ECE self-assessment it was discovered they were meeting some best practices but had room to grow.  Halley built a relationship with some of the vendors from the Webb City Farmer’s Market with the plan to increase the servings of fresh vegetables on each week’s menu, providing cooking experiences for the children and helping them understand where food comes from.

Like many other programs, Footprints and Friends Too had stopped family-style dining due to COVID. They wanted to use this opportunity to reinstate it in the preschool room to build self-help skills. Hands-on experiences letting the children help prepare food were integrated into daily lesson plans.  They went a step further by incorporating daily MyPlate activities to help preschool children identify the components of healthy nutrition and better understand what makes a well-balanced plate. These activities were expanded to teaching the components in Spanish and sign language.  

Because of going through the GoNAPSACC project, Halley and her staff have a better understanding of nutrition best practices and are confident they are now following those practices. They have implemented a farm to table policy into the staff handbook that explains best practices and expectations of the teachers. She is very proud of everything they have accomplished and could not have been successful without Christine supporting the changes within the classroom and new policies.  

Halley would encourage any program interested in increasing best practices to participate in GoNAPSACC.  She stated, “The process is simple. You just need to be willing to make adjustments to reach your goals.” 

If you are interested in learning more about Go NAPSACC, click here.

To register for the October-March group, Click here to register.

If you have questions, please contact Lauri Choate, Director of Training at lauri@mochildcareaware.org or 314-754-1603.  

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