Food Service Guidelines and Early Care Education C2314 (FY22 Food Service Guidelines account)

Alison Gustafson has extensive experience in measuring and evaluating the food environment as it pertains to meeting national recommendations for food service guidelines. Over the past several years Dr. Gustafson has evaluated and implemented community based interventions aimed at improving the food environment in rural and isolated communities. For this project, Dr. Gustafson will contribute her expertise in adolescent obesity prevention interventions and knowledge of rural community networks and school systems, vending, and overall foodservice guidelines in the specified regions. Specifically, Dr. Gustafson will serve as an outside expert of baseline data collection for food service recommendations; assist with technical training of community leaders to assess food service resources at baseline and follow-up years; provide consultation with community leaders; assist with evaluation of short and long-term evaluation measures as it pertains to food service guidelines. Courtney Luecking has extensive experience in developing and evaluating obesity prevention and treatment interventions, particularly in the early care and education setting. She is part of an ongoing trial investigating the effects of two sets of implementation strategies on childcare centers’ implementation of best practices in nutrition and physical activity to prevent childhood obesity through use of the Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC) process and platform. For this project, Dr. Luecking will serve as an outside expert regarding Go NAPSACC and best practices in nutrition and physical activity to prevent childhood obesity within early care and education (ECE) settings. Specifically, Dr. Luecking will provide access to the Go NAPSACC platform and consultation regarding Go NAPSACC recommendations and related best practices for ECE, participate in monthly Go NAPSACC technical assistance sessions, participate in quarterly partnership meetings, share output reports from the Go NAPSACC platform and provide updates on adoption and implementation efforts, and lead development of presentations and manuscripts.