Project EAT

Project EAT ( Educate, Act, Thrive.) serves 25,000 students directly. Initiated ten years ago at two schools in the Hayward Unified School District, Project EAT now serves 50 schools in five school districts with a yearly budget over $4 million dollars. Currently, the award winning, nationally recognized Project EAT serves Hayward, Livermore, San Leandro, and San Lorenzo school districts with primary funding from the Network for a Healthy California, funded by the California Department of Public Health. Additional funding has been provided by the Carol White Physical Education Grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Kaiser Permanente, and The San Francisco Foundation.

Project EAT’s purpose is to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables and physical activity in and around low income schools. Currently we serve approximately 50,000 unduplicated contacts with over 200,000 individual yearly impressions for our audience. Unduplicated contacts for nutrition education represent the school population – the students and their families, to date we haven’t been able to quantify our further reach in the community.

The leadership and diverse range of programs and services provided by the Educational Services Division of the Alameda County Office of Education’s is anchored in its explicit mission to close the achievement gap for our under-represented populations. Essential to closing the achievement gap is to address the health and nutrition issues and needs of children and families. This is why the work of the Alameda County Office of Education Nutritional Learning Community Coalition is so critical to our community. Its mission is to change the eating behaviors and increase the physical activity of every member in and around low income school communities.

As a contracted awardee of the Network for a Healthy California and grantee of the U.S. Department of Education, Project EAT serves under-resourced communities to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables and increase physical activity.

Using public health and educational reform evidence-based research, the ACOE NLCC in partnership with over 50 schools, has been successful in achieving its stated goals to:

• Increase participating children’s consumption of fruits and vegetables
• Increase participants’ physical activity