Hover over and click on the different elements in the scene below to discover resources to help host a healthy sporting event in your school community.
Please note that many of the resources contained on this page are external links not monitored or maintained by Ever Active Schools. If you should come across a broken or incorrect link, please email us to let us know.
Check out this section for nutrition guidelines, research and policy!
Check out this webpage for healthy recipes, snack ideas, sample menus and price lists!
Check out this webpage for success stories from Schools and Sporting Tournaments who have made the switch to healthy choices!
Check out our Appetite For Change downloadable resources: Staff Poster, School Poster, Logo, Game Day PA Scripts, PowerPoint Template and Sample Menus.
Check out this webpage for Ready To Use posters and presentations to make over your concession, just Print and Go!
Check out this section for healthy eating classroom and school resources!
APPETITE FOR CHANGE
- Staff Poster - The Manifesto: We are the athletes. We are the coaches. We are the parents. And we are the event hosts. Together, we are demanding better. Appetite For Change enables young athletes to excel by advocating for healthy food choices at championship events across Alberta. Share the Appetite For Change Manifesto Poster with your school’s decision makers, coaching staff and school faculty to raise awareness of your involvement in this movement. You can also display your poster at school sporting events to help others understand the importance of your role in creating an Appetite For Change.
- Serve This, Not That! Are you looking to make-over your concession? Use this menu resource for healthy snack, meal and drink alternatives.
- School Poster: Show support for your athletes by displaying the Appetite For Change School Poster throughout your halls, in the gymnasium and near your concession to raise awareness and inform your fans that you are offer delicious, healthy food options at your sporting events.
- Appetite For Change Logo: The Appetite For Change Logo allows you to display your support in your own way. As long as you follow the Logo Guidelines, we encourage you to spread the word about this exciting change in a way that is best for you and your school.
- Game day PA Scripts: We encourage you to support your athletes by sharing your involvement in Appetite For Change with all of your students, parents, and fans. You can use the PA Announcement Scripts we’ve provided to inform the crowd about Appetite For Change and direct them to your concession to try your delicious, healthy menu items.
- PowerPoint Template: A great way to inform others about the importance of Appetite For Change, is to talk about it. Download this PowerPoint Template to create your own presentation.
COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL HEALTH (HEALTHY EATING)
Curriculum:
- Alberta Health Services Sugar Shocker: The purpose of the Sugar Shocker Education Kit is to raise awareness about the amount of added sugar in common drinks and to learn how to make better drink choices.
- Alberta Health Service Curriculum Based Lesson Plans
- Alberta Health Services Cooking Club Manual: this manual aims to teach children aged 8-12 food preparation and cooking skills, as well as healthy eating and food safety so that they can confidently choose and make nutritious foods. Includes ready-to-go lesson plans, background information and worksheets for the classroom and the kitchen. The content supports the Alberta Education Health and Life Skills curriculum and all recipes used in this manual are aligned with the Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth.
School Environment:
- Alberta Health Services offers a wide variety health related resources for Schools and Teachers, including resources for School Nutrition. Some are shared here and more are available on their website.
- Alberta Health Services School Nutrition Handbook: This Handbook offers a starting point to change or improve the school nutrition environment, and to assist everyone involved in schools in making it easy to eat healthy.
- Alberta Health Services Steps to Creating a School Nutrition Policy: A step by step toolkit to creating a School Nutrition Policy.
- Alberta Health Services Nutrition Bites: This page has nutrition topics that are ready to be inserted into your school newsletter. Copy, paste and insert into your school or parent newsletter to keep your school community informed about nutrition!
- Alberta Health Services Healthy School Fundraising: This handout provides steps to help community groups create a healthy fundraising policy. It includes tips for successful fundraising and a variety of healthy fundraising ideas. Originally designed for schools, the ideas in this handout are also helpful for recreation and community centres
- The Stay Active Eat Healthy® program is an evidence-based capacity building initiative developed in BC that aims to increase the provision of healthy food and beverages while restricting unhealthy options in municipal and community recreation facilities.
PROMOTIONS, MARKETING AND EDUCATION (PRINT AND USE)
- Alberta Health Services Sugar Shocker: The purpose of the Sugar Shocker Education Kit is to raise awareness about the amount of added sugar in common drinks and to learn how to make better drink choices. Check out pages 66-114 for Drink Photos that can be used at events and pages 123-125 for Stop, Yield, Go Signs to help direct patrons to the right snacks at your concession
- Cardston Elementary Tiki Hut Smoothie Promotional Poster: p. 15
- Alberta Health Services and the University of Lethbridge Snack Shack: A guide to implementing a Healthy Snack Canteen in schools. Use this resource to help you set up a snack shack in your school or club/organization.
- Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services Healthy Eating Posters
- TRSA: Healthy soccer tournament concession letter to parents and coaches example
- Sample letters requesting support for healthy eating: Athlete | Coach | Parent | Patron
- The Stay Active Eat Healthy® program is an evidence-based capacity building initiative developed in BC that aims to increase the provision of healthy food and beverages while restricting unhealthy options in municipal and community recreation facilities.
- Alberta Health Services Presentation to support healthy foods in recreation centres
- Alberta Health Services Marketing Healthy Food Choices, also available in French
- Alberta Health Services Healthy School Fundraising: This handout provides steps to help community groups create a healthy fundraising policy. It includes tips for successful fundraising and a variety of healthy fundraising ideas. Originally designed for schools, the ideas in this handout are also helpful for recreation and community centres.
- Ever Active Schools Posters for promoting your healthy concession at a sporting event: Poster 1 | Poster 2
- Sample Sold out sign
MENU IDEAS AND FOOD LISTS
- Snack Shack: A guide to implementing a Healthy Snack Canteen in schools. Use this resource from Alberta Health Services and the University of Lethbridge to help you set up a snack shack in your school or club/organization.
- Find smoothie recipes that were a hit at Cardston Elementary here on: p.9-20
- Making the Move to Healthy Choices: This is a healthy eating toolkit for recreation, sport and community food service providers. There are menu suggestions on pages 8-20, tips for planning meals for a tournament or special event on pages 21-22, and recipes on pages 37-44.
- Coach.ca is a website full of resources for coaches. Check out this page for information on fuelling the Young Athlete.
- Check out this handy snack handout developed by Ever Active Schools using snack ideas from some of our partners (Alberta Health Services, Alberta Milk and Apple Schools).
- Sample Menu and Food Preparation instructions from Soccer Tournament
- Sample Tournament Menu: This sample menu was developed my Pamela Boyson, a Population and Public Health Dietician for Alberta Health Services. This menu was used at a large community soccer tournament and was a hit.
RESEARCH, GUIDELINES, AND POLICY
Guidelines:
- Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth: These guidelines will assist Albertans in creating environments that provide and promote healthy food choices and instilling healthy attitudes about food in children and youth.
- Alberta Health Services: Healthy Vending Toolkit: This tool-kit guides you through a step-by-step process to take action on healthy vending in your school, recreation centre, or workplace. There are evidence-based strategies and tools to create a successful healthy vending program.
- Alberta Health Services: Sports Nutrition for Youth - A handbook for Coaches. This handbook is in place to help school and community coaches to support youth athletes and their parents in making informed choices around good nutrition and hydration for sports performance.
- The Stay Active Eat Healthy® program is an evidence-based capacity building initiative developed in BC that aims to increase the provision of healthy food and beverages while restricting unhealthy options in municipal and community recreation facilities.
Policy:
- University of Alberta School of Public Health Policy Readiness Tool: The Policy Readiness Tool was created to increase local capacity for healthy policy change. It is designed for use by individuals, organizations and municipalities interested in creating healthier communities.
- Pathways to Change: Six Theories about How Policy Change Happens: Sharon Stochowiak outlines six common theories or pathways for policy change – summarizing some underlying assumptions; typical activities and outcomes; and, some tips on practical applications for each theory.
- Alberta Health Services Healthy School Fundraising: This handout provides steps to help community groups create a healthy fundraising policy. It includes tips for successful fundraising and a variety of healthy fundraising ideas. Originally designed for schools, the ideas in this handout are also helpful for recreation and community centres. Check out Steps to Create a Healthy Fundraising Policy on page 1.
- The Stay Active Eat Healthy® program is an evidence-based capacity building initiative developed in BC that aims to increase the provision of healthy food and beverages while restricting unhealthy options in municipal and community recreation facilities.
- City of St. Albert Sample Invitation to Tender: Check out this document for some ideas on language to use when writing a request for proposal from a food vendor to provide healthier options.
Research:
- Improving children’s nutrition environments: A survey of adoption and implementation of nutrition guidelines in recreational facilities, 2011. Dana Lee Olstad, Shauna M Downs, Kim D Raine, Tanya R Berry and Linda J McCargar.
- Implementing the Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth in a Recreation Facility, 2011. Dana Lee Olstad, Jessica R.L. Lieffers, Kim D Raine and Linda J McCargar.
- Adopting and implementing nutrition guidelines in recreation facilities: tensions between public health and corporate profitability, 2012. Dana Lee Olstad, Kim D Raine and Linda J McCargar.
- Choosing healthier foods in recreational sport settings: a mixed methods investigation of the impact of nudging and an economic incentive, 2014. Dana Lee Olstad, Laksiri A Goonewardene, Linda J McCargar and Kim D Raine.
- Profit Versus Public Health: The Need to Improve the Food Environment in Recreation Facilities, 2013. Dana Lee Olstad and Kim D. Raine. (link to PDF)
- Research of this section
- For a summary of some of the findings from Olstad’s research, browse these friendly handouts:
SUCCESS STORIES
- Cardston Elementary Tiki Hut: The vision of the Tiki Hut sprang from a student generated action plan stemming from the 2010 Healthy Active Schools Leadership Symposium (HASS) in Lethbridge, Alberta. The students' goal was to replace unhealthy food items sold at lunch with healthy alternatives. The school principal purchased vita-mix-blenders and the Tiki Hut was born. The purpose of this manual is to provide schools with information that the Cardston Elementary student leadership committee found useful during the formation of the Tiki Hut. The majority of the recipes have been adapted from various home smoothie recipes. As you proceed to set up your own smoothie shops, please take a look at the various check lists located in this manual. It is the hope of the smoothie focus group that this document will meet the needs of most schools wishing to facilitate student leadership smoothie shops in their schools. Smoothie Equipment List, Student and Administration Surveys can be found on pages 11-13.
- Terwillegar Riverbend Soccer Association Tournament
- A Comprehensive Approach to Implementing a Healthy Eating Strategy at the Nova Scotia 55+ Games: A Presentation delivered by Thrive Nova Scotia at the Canadian Sport for Life 2016 National Summit.
