We're CATCHing Up!

CATCH (Coordinated Approach To Child Health) is a coordinated school health program which builds an alliance of parents, teachers, child nutrition personnel, school staff, and community partners to teach children and their families how to be healthy for a lifetime. The four CATCH components - Go For Health Classroom Curriculum, CATCH Physical Education, Eat Smart School Nutrition Guide, and Family Home Team activities - reinforce positive healthy behaviors throughout a child's day and make it clear that good health and learning go hand in hand.

"You don' have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients." - Julia Child

Child Nutrition Services - CATCH Kids Need You

The CATCH Program considers school cafeterias an extension of the classroom. Breakfast and lunch become opportunities for children to learn, practice and adopt healthy eating habits. The CATCH school cafeteria is literally a hands-on learning environment. CATCH classroom and physical education lessons
come to life as children experience first hand the concepts of
GO, SLOW, and WHOA Foods.

Dining in the CATCH cafeteria is only the beginning of reinforcing that healthy eating is a life skill. The healthy foods planned, purchased, prepared and promoted by the cafeteria staff are the foundation for nutritional awareness. The CATCH Program outlines how the school cafeteria can become the hub for creating a healthy school nutrition environment - an environment which helps manage and encourage healthy eating in other food choices available at school (snack bars, school parties, PTA meetings, fund raisers, concession stands, etc).

The success of CATCH relies on the coordinated process utilized to implement its component parts. We recognize that most child nutrition services have already made great contributions to the health of schools - many of which are unseen to the general school community. CATCH provides the foundation by which you can build an alliance of school administration, teachers, and parents to further promote your efforts to create a healthy school environment.

We hope you enjoy your visit to our website. When you're ready, please contact us toll free at 1-866-346-6163 to learn more about how you can get started helping schools begin implementing the CATCH Program.

The New Movement for Healthier Kids

CATCH works! The CATCH Program has scientifically demonstrated that you can create school environments that affect healthy behavioral changes in children. Your school's participation in the CATCH Program is an investment in the health of children, and helps create a healthy community where children benefit from the eating behaviors and physical activity skills they have learned in the school.

"Obesity is an epidemic among Texas children. If we do not act now, a generation of young people will face diabetes and cardiovascular disease in their 20s and 30s, and that will be a public health disaster for Texas." - Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., MPH, Texas Commissioner of Health

We Can't Afford To Weight

Texas, and the nation, is faced with an epidemic of obesity. Approximately 15% of American children are overweight. Children who are overweight are more likely to develop diabetes and other chronic disease risk factors. Inactivity and poor diet cause at least 300,000 deaths a year in the United States. Obesity related diseases cost the U.S. economy more than $100 billion every year. But fortunately, the science of CATCH demonstrated that behaviors such as physical inactivity and eating foods high in fat can be positively changed.

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