Evaluating Implementation and Impact of Local School Wellness Policies

Abstract

TEXT: The Child Nutrition Act of 2004 requires all local education agencies to establish comprehensive wellness policies for their districts by June 30, 2006. Establishment of the local school wellness policy is only the first step in the school wellness story. One component of these policies that is particularly important is the evaluation piece that will determine best practices and justify additional nutrition promotion measures in the future. Dietetics professionals can play a key role in ensuring implementation and evaluation of these local school wellness policies. Dietitians at Sodexho and the American Dietetic Association partnered to develop a pilot evaluation tool that was tested by Sodexho dietitians in 5 school districts. The evaluation tool focuses on implementation of the nutrition components of the local wellness policy and utilizes numerous resources, including purchase records and use of Sodexho-developed nutrition education materials, as part of the ongoing impact evaluation. This presentation will focus on the lessons learned from development and pilot testing of the evaluative tool. Preliminary results from the implementation evaluation will be presented.