The Coaches Challenge

is a voluntary program for elementary school classrooms and middle school PE classes that promotes increased opportunities for physical activity and educates student about healthy eating. The program is implemented by teachers using the CATCH curriculum and encourages teachers to engage their students with moving-learning activities in and out of school.

Teachers are provided step-by-step guidance for program implementation, detailed lesson plans, technical assistance, & resources. Through this shared model, educators and Public Health professionals take a strategic approach to provide direct education and guide effective policy, systems, and environmental efforts for physical activity and nutrition to help students gain the knowledge and skills to establish heathy habits.

To learn more about the Coaches Challenge, click here. For additional information and resources, visit GetHealthyWashoe.com

Rethink Your Drink Nevada

is a social marketing campaign that promotes healthy beverage choices and reduced intake of sugary drinks. The campaign utilizes a variety of approaches to reach parents and young, school-age children including direct mail to households, and social, print and digital media.  In addition, Rethink Your Drink Nevada has collaborated with others including medical and dental practices and grocery stores.

Over two hundred medical and dental practices in 14 counties have been provided with a free Rethink Your Drink Toolkit.  The Toolkit includes educational materials for parents (written in English and Spanish), posters for display in exam and/or waiting areas, stickers for children, and drink models that display the sugar content of a common sugary drinks.  Practitioners are also provided with a digital Guidebook that includes suggestions for using the Toolkit components, in addition to other ways they can support healthy drink choices among their patients. Over six hundred practitioners have access to the Toolkit materials. Lastly, Rethink Your Drink Nevada sends out a monthly blog written for health practitioners entitled Research on Drinks: What’s Trending, that summarizes new research on drinks and children’s health.

In participating grocery stores in eight Nevada counties, Rethink Your Drink recipe cards are available for free to all customers.  The healthy drink recipes are simple, low-cost and require no special equipment to prepare.  Customers can find the recipes in Rethink Your Drink displays are often positioned near the produce section to encourage customers to purchase the fresh fruits and vegetables included in the recipes.

Additional Rethink Your Drink Nevada resources including delicious drink recipes and brochures for parents and young, school-aged children can be found at RethinkYourDrinkNevada.com.

Smart Shopper

Smart Shopper is a series of classes offered by the Food Bank of Northern Nevada that promotes a healthy lifestyle on a budget. Each session consists of 7, hour and a half long classes. Each class incorporates discussions, activities, food tastings, and time to be physically active. Classes are hosted by neighborhood schools where many families have been identified to be SNAP-eligible.

Seniors Eating Well

Seniors Eating Well is a series of classes offered by the Food Bank of Northern Nevada that aims to improve the health, nutrition knowledge and behaviors of older adults. It focuses specifically on reducing sodium intake, increasing healthy fats, healthy snacking, preparing fruits, vegetables & whole grains, reading nutrition labels, and physical activity. Each session consists of 8, one hour classes on a specific topic.

Pop-up Nutrition Class

We are now offering a Pop-up nutrition class model in addition to the Smart Shopper and Seniors Eating well classes. It incorporates adapted versions of the lessons in the seniors eating well/smart shopper curriculum but can be tailored to meet the needs and interests of the participating community. The sessions are 45-60 minutes long with different class topics at each session, along with activities, and prizes. This is a great opportunity for community members that may not be able to commit to the series of classes that the Smart Shopper/ Seniors Eating Well curriculum requires but are still interested in learning about the different nutrition topics.

Healthy Pantry Initiative

Healthy Pantry Initiative is nutrition education information that is delivered to families and individuals who seek emergency food assistance at food pantry partners of FBNN. Partner Agencies may choose to become “healthy pantries” and support environmental changes to their pantries to make the healthiest food choices the easiest choice for pantry users. FBNN staff provides nutrition training to food pantry staff and volunteers.

Nutrition on Wheels

NOW (Nutrition on Wheels) Nutrition Program is provided by the Food Bank at Mobile Harvest produce distribution sites. The Food Bank’s Mobile Harvest truck delivers fruits and vegetables into 40+ neighborhoods every month, year round. Families who otherwise cannot access or afford to buy fresh produce come to meet the truck at a site in their neighborhood, and go home with a generous supply of produce and other perishable foods, including dairy, yogurt, etc. While they are waiting to check in, an FBNN bilingual nutrition educator sets up a table and talks with clients about pertinent nutrition topics in the form of short nutrition lessons. The table consists of materials such as nutrition information, recipes, and visuals. The nutrition educator gives a brief nutrition lesson to clients as they wait in line. NOW is offered on weekdays at Mobile Harvest sites including schools in low-income areas, community food pantries, healthcare clinics serving low-income patients, and community centers.

Prescription Pantry

Food Bank of Northern Nevada operates the Prescription Pantry. This innovative project brings together the Food Bank of Northern Nevada with seven of its partner agencies and five local healthcare providers in Washoe County to reduce food insecurity and improve patient health through prescriptions for healthier foods. Each patient at participating healthcare agencies is screened for food insecurity using the Hunger Vital Sign™ tool. Patients who screen positive are issued a prescription for food at participating healthy food pantry locations. A1C data was collected for patients who visited a healthy food pantry four or more times within the 12-month period. Each partner agency operates as a Healthy Pantry, meaning they have foods on hand that can promote and improve health such as increased fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean or plant based proteins and low-fat dairy products. Since launching the program in 2017 we have seen significant downward trends in A1C values for the participants utilizing the prescription program frequently.