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Portion Sizes and School-Age Children

This kit provides a planned approach to address the issue of portion sizes in schools. It is full of strategies and resources to help you improve your school nutrition environment.

Many of the materials are intended as "internal" guidelines for your team, while others can be used as fact sheets or educational tools when communicating your message about portion sizes. Print those files you want to use and make as many copies as you need. We chose to save the files in a PDF format to maintain their integrity. Feel free to download any and all of the following!

• Cover design [PDF]
  
• Dividers [PDF]

• Portion Sizes and School-Age Children: Trends, Effects, Solutions Paper [PDF - 6 pages] - This is an overview that explores the changing trends in portion sizes, the health consequences and possible strategies for change.

• Portion Sizes and School-Age Children: Trends, Effects, Solutions Presentation [PowerPoint] - This PowerPoint presentation can be used for recruiting team members and talking with groups. Portions of the presentation could also be used with school administrators and community groups when making your case for more healthful snack and meal choices in schools. You may need to customize the presentation or use just a portion of it to meet your exact needs. To modify the presentation, you will have to download this to your hard drive, make the changes you want and then save it to a CD or zip disk. The presentation is too large to fit on a standard disc. When preparing for your presentation, select the Notes Page View. In this view you will find talking points for each slide and where appropriate possible activities and supporting handouts. Use these to enhance your presentation.

  Supporting Materials - These materials are intended to provide specific details and guidance for the issues addressed in the portion sizes overview paper. They are "how-to" ideas for getting things done. The first item you will notice is Plan for Change [PDF - 1 page] . Subsequent materials are organized to help you achieve the six steps outlined for change:

  1. Create the Team [PDF - 1 page]
  2. Conduct the Assessment [pdf - 2 pages]
  3. Develop the Plan [PDF - 1 page]
  4. Implement the Plan
     
     The Marketing of Supersize [PDF - 1 page]
     
     The Marketing of Supersize to Kids [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Just Say No to SuperSize [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Bigger May Not Be Better [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Portion Distortion [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Do You Know How Much You Are Eating? [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Food Guide Pyramid Serving Sizes [PDF - 1 page]
     
     What's In a Serving Size [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Choosing Sensible Portions [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Serving Sizes Are in Your Hand [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Raising a Healthy Eater [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Portion Sizes Policy Considerations [PDF - 1 page]
     
     Serving Sizes in the Classroom [PDF - 1 page]

     Communicate the Plan
     

     Sample Meeting Announcement [PDF - 1 page]
     

     Sample Parent Letter [PDF - 1 page]
     

     Working With the Media [PDF - 2 pages]
     

     Tips for Talking with Reporters [PDF - 1 page]
     

     Tips for Television [PDF - 1 page]
     

     Sample Feature Article [PDF - 2 pages]
     

     Sample Op-Ed Piece [PDF - 1 page]

     Evaluate the Plan [PDF - 1 page]

Note: To open the PowerPoint presentation (created with PowerPoint 97), you must have PowerPoint installed on your computer. To open and print the PDF files, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free on the Adobe web site.