CATCH Kids Club Collaborative: Enhance the Nutrition and Physical Activity Lessons to Include and Engage Children of all Developmental Levels

Approximately 16% of Oklahoma’s youth ages 10–17 years were overweight/obese in 2007, ranking Oklahoma 17th in the nation for childhood obesity. In addition, Oklahoma ranked 50th in the nation for fruit and vegetable consumption. Coordinated physical activity and nutrition were not considered a priority in after-school programs. However, physical activity and nutrition became a focus of the Oklahoma State Department of Health through the Strong and Healthy Oklahoma initiative and were identified as strategic priorities for the agency. The Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) Kids Club (CKC) was introduced as a 3-year pilot project in 20 after-school sites in Oklahoma at the beginning of the 2007 school year. In 2009, most of the CKC sites would be entering the third year of implementation using the same curriculum, so returning children would be hearing repetitive information and playing the same games. A team was put together to work on increasing nutrition knowledge and physical activity behavior by 15%. Many initiatives were implemented across sites to rejuvenate nutrition and physical activity; these initiatives included new recipes for kids to try; new resources such as coloring books, newsletters, and games; new games for physical activity times and physical activity training videos for health educators to see the hard-to-get games in action; and increased recognition for the students’ success. Due to these initiatives, there was a 44% increase in kids who correctly responded to the majority of physical activity behavior/nutrition knowledge questions. Eight new resources were developed, and all 17 active sites implemented at least one of the resources, with an average of three resources implemented.