Editor’s Note: Last month, Snack Food Association nutritionist and public policy health advisor Lisa Katic discussed the problem of childhood obesity and an SFA-backed program, Kidnetic.com, which can help companies encourage kids to be more active. In this follow-up, Lisa discusses a new Leader’s Guide that has been created as part of the effort.

Is your company interested in the health and well-being of kids and families in your community? Don’t reinvent the wheel! The Snack Food Association supports an excellent program that has been designed for precisely that purpose. It’s called “ACTIVATE,” and it can help your company encourage health and fitness programs in your local schools or community settings.

ACTIVATE is an umbrella program designed to promote healthy family lifestyles and help prevent kids from becoming significantly overweight. The Kidnetic.com Leader’s Guide is a component of ACTIVATE and contains activity modules for teaching groups of 9-12 year-old kids and their families about fitness, food and fun.

You can be the conduit to teachers or schools in your area by informing them of this instructive and successful program. ACTIVATE and the Kidnetic.com Leader’s Guide was developed by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation in partnership with the following organizations and is completely non-commercial, which means no branding or advertising:

ACTIVATE includes a website, www.kidnetic.com, which is reachable from the SFA’s website, www.sfa.org, a Leader’s Guide for use in community programs or classrooms and a guide for parents—the newest addition to the resource list.

The Kidnetic.com Leader’s Guide is an instructional resource composed of 13 modules addressing food, fitness, fun, feelings and family. The guide is filled with healthy eating and active living lessons and activities that can be used in a variety of educational settings.

The Leader’s Guide modules can be used as a stand-alone activity-based session/lesson, or all 13 modules can be taught in sequence as a comprehensive health education program. Each module can range from 30 to 60 minutes in length, but can be adapted to meet shorter or loner time frames. Each activity in the modules includes goals, quick-start ideas and activity action plans. There also are take-home activities that involve parents and other family members.

Prior to developing the Kidnetic.com Leader’s Guide, the IFIC Foundation conducted several pilot programs involving the lessons contained in it. Modules were tested in a range of educational settings across multiple geographic locations. Participants in the testing of the modules said the lessons were easy to use while kids had fun learning critical health concepts.

You can download a free copy of the Leader’s Guide by visiting www.ific.org/kidnetic. The full Leader’s Guide is 208 pages with 13 modules divided into five categories. You can download one or all 13 modules, depending on your needs.