Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase
303804
Combining Social Innovation, Business Principles, and Public Health to Address Healthy School Food in New Orleans Public Schools
Monday, November 17, 2014
: 12:30 PM - 12:50 PM
Taslim van Hattum, LMSW, MPH
,
School Health Connection, Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Andrea Chen, MBA
,
Propeller: A Force for Social Innovation, New Orleans, LA
Thomas Carton, PhD
,
Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Marsha Broussard, DrPH
,
School Health Connection, Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, LA
Improving the nutritional value of school lunch presents a unique opportunity for public health programming to impact the U.S. obesity epidemic. Research investigating the dynamic relationship between school food and child obesity is particularly feasible in New Orleans, where most public schools operate within a charter system and 82% of public school students eat school-provided foods. In 2011, a non-profit social innovation incubator known as Propeller: A Force for Social Innovation partnered with KIPP New Orleans to launch the Healthy School Food Collaborative (HSFC), a social venture that addresses the need for systemic change in the Louisiana school food environment through innovative policy and practice. The HSFC recruited KIPP New Orleans to serve as an umbrella School Food Authority, which allowed participating schools to autonomously select a food vendor that meets stricter nutritional standards than those of the USDA. Currently, the HSFC serves 34 charter schools, 14,755 children, and 33% of the New Orleans public school population. By combining business principles with public health programming, the HSFC has successfully used contracting as a tool for improving the New Orleans school food environment. To evaluate adherence to contractual requirements and student consumption of food, Propeller has joined with the Louisiana Public Health Institute’s School Health Connection (SHC); thereby forming a city coalition of experts in social innovation, programming, and science. HSFC efforts and complementary research will provide valuable evidence as to how the realms of policy, education, and business can come together to significantly influence the obesity epidemic in South Louisiana.
Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the utility of applying business principles and tools, such as contracting, to public health programming as a vehicle for policy change.
Describe why school lunch programming is a suitable arena for impacting the childhood obesity epidemic.
Keyword(s): School-Based Health, Nutrition
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an expert in forming partnerships and interfaces between schools and businesses. I have years of experience with business programming and education services, and have been an integral part of forming this evaluation and collaborative. I received my J.D. from Loyola University of Law, and an MBA and MEd from the University of New Orleans.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
