Meeting the Dietary Goals for School Meals by the Year 2000: The CATCH Eat Smart School Nutrition Program

Abstract

Abstract During the past decade health promotion for our nation's school children has received considerable attention. The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) was the largest multicenter school-based health promotion program ever funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, involving 96 public elementary schools in four states and over 5,000 students in the baseline measurement cohort. The Eat Smart School Nutrition Program, the environmental component of CATCH, was tested for effectiveness in reducing fat, saturated fat, and sodium in school meals. This article provides an overview of the CATCH Eat Smart kitchen visits and intervention materials including the School Meal Program Guide, Fat and Sodium Criteria for recipes, ingredients, and vendor products, Recipe File Box, Vendor Product Handbook, Newsline, and intervention posters, training models, and process and outcome evaluation measures. All these components were essential in implementing a well tested model that would assist schools in meeting the Healthy People 2000 objectives for school food services.