By Laura Urban, Associate Director of Health & Nutrition at Children’s Council of San Francisco
Children spend upwards of 40 hours per week in childcare, giving child care educators a unique opportunity to shape healthy behaviors at a young age. That’s why at Children’s Council of San Francisco, we offer health and nutrition programming that fosters child care environments that support good nutrition and ample opportunities for physical activity. This work is essential to our ultimate goal of mitigating diet-sensitive chronic diseases as children transition into adulthood. We do this work in collaboration with our network of child care educators, offering Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) programming to ensure child care providers have the tools and supports to create healthy childcare environments, inclusive of limiting access to sugary drinks.
Our programming strives to serve all our communities in San Francisco. Specifically, we prioritize supporting child care sites and early educators who serve primarily low-income, Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander and Asian families with young children ages 0 to 5. We work to eliminate health disparities among these priority populations through the integration of three core programs: Healthy Apple Program (HAP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and our Farm to Early Care and Education (F2ECE) Program.
Our HAP is a PSE initiative that supports early educators in limiting children’s access to sugary drinks and increasing the frequency of serving fresh fruits and vegetables, the availability of safe drinking water, and the amount of adult-led physical activity provided to children each day. Today, our HAP annually serves approximately 250 child care providers, reaching upwards of 3,250 children.
The CACFP is a federal nutrition program that offers partial reimbursement for the service of healthy meals and snacks, incentivizing educators to abide by nutrition guidelines to ensure that children get the proper nutrition they need. Children’s Council is currently a sponsor of about 240 Family Child Care Homes (FCCHs), supporting nutrition security for nearly 1,849 children.
Our F2ECE Program enhances nutrition security by increasing children’s access to healthy, organic produce and supporting local food systems. We partner with Yeyi Organics to source CSA boxes from BIPOC-owned, organic farms using regenerative practices. These boxes are provided to CACFP FCCHs for meals, snacks, nutrition education, and to share with families. In Summer 2024, we are working with 20 CACFP FCCHs to deliver an anticipated 3,696 pounds of produce, reaching about 201 children and their families.
To support our child care educators in our programs, we provide regular onsite coaching and individualized assistance. We understand that transportation barriers can affect our educator’s access to our trainings and resources. Although our Mission Dolores office is accessible by public transit, the time and effort required can be challenging. Accessing our Health and Nutrition programs, including workshops and CSA box pickups, can be difficult for providers balancing various needs in San Francisco.
With these constraints in mind, in November 2023, we applied for the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax (SDDT) Healthy Communities Support Grant offered through the San Francisco Department of Public Health Foundation in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH). We proposed the purchase of an electric vehicle (EV) and the purchase and installation of a four-bank EV charging station on-site at our offices. The EV would be used to travel to our CACFP monitoring visits, to offer onsite HA coaching and technical assistance, and distribute materials to child care providers engaged in our programming, in addition to transportation related to workshops and/or other educational opportunities offered by our Health and Nutrition staff.
In January 2024, we were excited to announce we were one of the awardees of the San Francisco Department of Public Health Foundation’s SDDT Healthy Communities Support Grant. Shortly after, Children’s Council purchased a 2023 Hyundai Kona EV and installed the four-bank EV charging station. The Kona and the charging station will result in significant transportation expense savings every year, allowing for the reallocations of savings to fund and support other Health and Nutrition program direct-service activities to promote chronic disease prevention.
Without this funding, Children’s Council would not be able to expand our capacity to reduce inequities that affect underserved children and their families within San Francisco. Our Health and Nutrition Team is excited and proud of our new set of wheels! Keep an eye out for us in your neighborhoods. Much gratitude to the stewardship of these funds by the Healthy Eating/Active Living Chronic Disease Prevention Programs department of the San Francisco Department of Public Health Foundation for supporting our expansion of capacity to do this important work.
Photo Caption: Children’s Council’s Patricia Ortiz, Health and Nutrition Specialist, shows off their new EV.