During the Municipal Government Elections in the fall of 2012, the Alliance promoted healthy eating, physical activity, and the provincial government’s Thrive! Strategy to school board candidates… An election campaign called Add it Up!: Healthy Eating + Physical Activity = A+ was developed to engage school board candidates, partners, organizations and members of the public in supporting policies that encourage healthy eating and physical activity in schools. The priority areas of this campaign focused on supporting: 1) Quality Daily Physical Education; 2) Effective implementation of school food policy; 3) Capacity for school based physical activity opportunities; and 4) Active transportation to and from school.
The first phase of this campaign included:
- A survey to assess school board candidate’s commitment to healthy eating and physical activity.
- Three fact sheets [fact-sheet-1 fact-sheet-2 fact-sheet-3] to provide detailed information about the link between healthy eating and physical activity and school performance, the role that school board members can play and a description of the priority areas of the campaign.
- Literature Review in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation to describe the relationship between healthy eating, physical activity and academic performance.
- Webinar to share information about the campaign, Nova Scotia school research and opportunities to support healthy eating and physical activity in schools.
The second phase of the project focused on building capacity of school board members to support healthy eating and physical activity, which included building a relationship with the Nova Scotia School Boards Association. Further activities included a presentation with the NSSBA Board of Directors and at the Annual General Meeting.