Action for Healthy Kids believes a zip code should not determine a child’s health or educational outcomes. We work in underserved school district communities nationwide where we can establish long-term relationships and have the greatest impact through our family-school partnership approach that offers funding opportunities, support, content, trainings, and a network of parent leaders. We intentionally pursue deeper, strategic long-term impact in support of child health and well-being. Leveraging the AFHK District Equity Index, a tool we developed to ensure equitable allocation of our support, we prioritize and partner with underserved school districts where there is a demonstrated need and lack of resources. We seek districts with a readiness to engage in a multi-year partnership to address our three core program areas: food access and nutrition education; physical activity and active play; and social emotional learning and risk behavior prevention. 

AFHK views the Partner District as a long-term partner interested in working together through the 2025-26 school year on district-level policy and professional development, as well as funding and professional development for its schools for implementation of district policy, best practices, curricula/programs, and family-school partnerships to address social-emotional health and risk behavior prevention (ConnectEd), food access and nutrition education (NourishEd), and physical activity and active play (EnergizEd), and provide a learning environment where students are healthy in body and mind. 

We are excited to preview highlights of what a few of this year’s districts are planning and look forward to sharing more about the impact of these partnerships next year!  

o   Los Angeles USD (CA) – In an effort to increase participation in school meals, the LAUSD Food Service staff have begun implementing “Lucky Trays”, where they place stickers under a limited number of trays and students receive a healthy incentive if they are lucky enough to receive the tray with a sticker. LAUSD Food Service staff are tracking participation throughout the “Lucky Tray” program to understand program impact.  

o   Upland USD (CA) – The district plans to beautify and create a positive and healthy cafeteria environment with signage and murals.  

o   Duval County (FL) – The district plans to develop Active Hallways in schools to promote physical activity during the school day.  

o   White County SD (TN) – Social-emotional learning is relatively new for the district, and they plan to initiate an SEL curriculum for 120 minutes each week and integrate wellness topics into Literacy.  

o   Lompoc USD (CA) – The district is expanding school meal programming to include a supper option to Expanded Learning Students.