Eat smart in parks toolkit
Abstract
"Thousands of visitors come to the parks each year to enjoy a wide range of recreational activities. While our parks are a valuable resource for children and adults to maintain and improve their health through exercise and recreation, the high-calorie, ultra-processed, salty foods served at some parks can quickly negate the benefits of being outside and moving more. By making healthy options available at food service operations, parks can have a positive impact on their patrons' diets. Because of the vast number of visitors to Missouri parks every year, simply having healthier choices available in the parks can go a long way towards improving health in Missouri. Eat Smart in Parks (ESIP) is a statewide effort aimed at promoting healthier eating options in state and local parks. In interviews at state and municipal parks, about one-third of visitors said they brought food from outside the park because they wanted to eat healthier food that wasn't, or didn't appear to be, available in the parks. For this reason, the Department of Natural Resources, the Missouri Council for Activity and Nutrition, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, and the Missouri Parks and Recreation Association collaborated to develop and refine this Eat Smart in Parks guide. Included are model nutrition guidelines that reflect some of the best information from leading health organizations, including the National Academy of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, along with marketing and promotion strategies for new, healthy options. See pages 6-7 for a complete description of these guidelines. Municipal parks across the state have worked with ESIP to offer fresh, flavorful foods to patrons that are good for them, too. Maximizing profit while controlling costs is a crucial part of the equation for food service operations. Strategies for keeping costs low, profit margins high, and increasing the popularity of healthy food are offered in this guide."--Page 3.
Rights
Archive version. For the most recent information see extension.missouri.edu.
OpenAccess.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.