Choose Health

Choose Health is an initiative of the Cornell Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Program intended to help all of us confront and take action to change the statistics of childhood obesity.

Families today are busier than ever, with more work, school and afterschool activities and scheduling issues. Couple these things with more sedentary lifestyles and more access to quick, sometimes less healthy meal choices and you can easily see the reasons for today's childhood obesity statistics.

Have not fear, there are great, fun ways to stay fit and be healthy.

Find Out More

• Choose Health! Blog
• Why, What, When & How Much We Eat - Cornell Food and Brand Lab
• An Epidemic of Childhood Obesity - CCE Suffolk County

Project Materials

• Project materials
  • 4-H Cooking Up Fun project - Cornell Division of Nutritional Sciences
  • Just Move (Alabama)
  • NYS Department of Health - Acitv8Kids

State 4-H Program Leader on Choose Health

Resources to promote the 4-H Choose Health program

• Choose Health Bookmarks
• Healthy Fact Circles
• Pedometer Challenge - create teams and see which one can take the most average steps during a day or a week.
  • Sample Counting Sheet from State Fair
  • Sample Press Release
• Passport to healthy lifestyles   - publisher version Create a whole wellness competition to help youth and families think about their daily decisions for health.
• Fitness Trail - Plan several stations with fun, physical activities for participants to complete. End with healthy snacks. Sample Materials from State Fair 2007:
  • Fitness Trail Checklist
  • Fitness Trail Guide (for setup)
  • Fitness Trail Promo
  • Fitness Trail List of Activities 

 

• Active Games - Directions for leading the games that were played in the Active Games workshop.  This document also contains reference materials and a list of the essentials for make your own "game bag".

 

Choosing Health is good for the world too. Eating local fruits and vegetables helps to meet requirements towards a healthy diet, and also cuts down on travel costs.  Refilling a water bottle makes it easy to stay hydrated, and cuts down on the amount of plastic thrown away. Make healthy choices for you and your world.

Find Out More

• Sustainability Press Release
• Healthy Facts for you and your world Palmcard
• Healthy Facts for you and your world Circles
• 4-H On the Street Video Challenge idea (with potential interview questions)

 

Produced in New York - PiNY is a youth cooking event designed to encourage kids to buy and cook with local foods, think about nutritional content and learn to cook independently.

Find Out More

• powerpoint (on what it is)
• Produced in New York Rules and Regs (Cayuga)
• Menu planning sheet - empty
• Menu planning sheet - sample - pot pie
• Sample Recipe Book (Cayuga)
• Notes for PNY Evaluators