Have CATCH?
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| National CATCH Director Peter Cribb and Mrs. Nisselda De Leon |
This past month the CATCH Team has been traveling all over the country providing presentations, training and discovering how others have woven the program into their communities. Every time I visit one of our CATCH communities I am amazed at how the programs and components have been adapted by the incredible champions who really make them work. A great example of this is Brownsville, Texas, where we are currently concentrating some of our efforts.
In January it was my pleasure to observe the wonderful work of Mrs. Nisselda De Leon the Child Nutrition Manager at Ortiz Elementary School in Brownsville ISD. Over the years Ms. De Leon has turned her cafeteria into an extension of the class room where children learn to eat a variety of food and practice the healthy habits they are taught in the classroom. In addition, she is a wonderful role model for the children and can now be seen running with the students. The Ortiz ES cafeteria is exemplary!
Be sure to check out the letter at the end of this newsletter that one student sent to Mrs. De Leon on how she now views oatmeal!
CATCH Healthy Indicators and
Healthy People 2020
A group of our great CATCH researchers recently completed a new document that demonstrates how CATCH contributes and helps meet the goals of the Healthy People 2020 health indicators. Be sure to download it here or visit the CATCH USA website.
GO-SLOW-WHOA Across the Country
Jennifer Stanfield at Westside Elementary School in Leander ISD saw these posters hanging in the University of Missouri cafeteria. She snapped a picture on her phone and now replicas hang in the cafeteria of her school. Very cool!
Operation Be Fit
Dallas Independent School District (DISD) and Medrano Middle School hosted a visit recently to demonstrate how DISD and CATCH support the Army & Air Force Exchange Service school and community/family health center with nutrition messages delivered through The Exchange School Meal Program and Operation Be Fit.
Pictured from left to right are: Peter Cribb, Coach Faber, Danita McFarland (AAFES), Adrian Hinson (AAFES), Karen Burnell, Lt. Blake (AAFES), Margaret Lopez, Barbara Johnson
Did you miss our last webinar?
Our January webinar feature special guest and National CATCH Coordinator, Kathy Chichester. Kathy discussed where and how to secure those elusive funding dollars for your program. You can still CATCH Kathy here!
Our CATCH Communities
These Community Health Workers (CHWs) are an integral part of a project directed by Dr. Belinda Reininger with the University of Texas-Brownsville-School of Public Health. The goal of the project is to increase physical activity, healthy eating and improve the overall health in the valley and around Brownsville, Texas.
We recently conducted CATCH trainings in the district and had CHWs from 9 cities and towns across Cameron County visit Ortiz Elementary School in the Brownsville Independent School District. This group observed how coordinated school health and the CATCH Programs work in the community.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield makes contribution to the Jewish Community Center's
Discover CATCH Early Childhood Program
On February 11-13, 2014, the Jewish Community Center (JCC) Association held its sixth Discover CATCH regional training at the Aaron Family JCC in Dallas Texas. Thirty professionals were trained as trainers, representing eight JCC's from across the country. Forty-one JCC's are now implementing the Discover CATCH: Early Childhood program.
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Dr. Paul Hain, Medical Director for Blue Cross/Blue Shield presents a check to the Jewish Community Center Association in support of their Discover CATCH Programs-From left to right: Mackenzie Noda and Steve Becker of JCCA, Dr Hain, BCBS of Texas, Peter Cribb, National CATCH Director
and Mark Horowitz of JCCA
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The training in Dallas was extremely successful and our JCCA team could not be more proud of the work being done across the country to instill healthy habits in the youngest members of our community.
Hello CATCH USA, I wanted to share with you how much your Go, Slow, Whoa program has impacted the enthusiasm of our fifth graders at Yarbrough Elementary. Our PE department has partnered with the Language Arts teacher and school nutrition manager to extend the educational games we are playing during PE into the general education classroom. We have strategically woven the Go, Slow, Whoa program into our implementation of Common Core. Our students have researched different types of magazines to see what category of food is advertised most and graphed their results. 
Most excitedly, they are writing commercials on the different categories of food to persuade their audience to ensure they are eating several Go foods. We have commercials with Super Serving Size Man, a super hero who makes certain that everyone understands the importance of a proper serving size. 
We have a commercial with a waiter whose goal is to educate everyone who comes to his restaurant on Go, Slow, and Whoa foods. We have other commercials with training camps on Go, Slow, and Whoa food, and a family who tells their own story of eating Go foods (think Jarrod from the Subway commercials). 
I am sharing this cross-curriculum information so that you can share in our excitement of how valuable your program is to our school, and what an impact you are making on child nutrition. It will take at least another two weeks before the commercials are finalized, but I hope to share them with you as soon as they are completed.
