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The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.

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Program Description

Overview Deal Me In… food and fitness (DMI) is an after school program developed by the Dairy Council of California to provide fun, hands-on, engaging ways to introduce and reinforce healthy eating and physical activity. The program is designed to help youth choose individual foods that contribute to their health by choosing healthy breakfast and snacks; choose physical activities that contribute to their whole health; recognize healthy food choices when away from home, specifically from vending machines and fast food restaurants; identify appropriate portion sizes according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid; and have an increased value for leadership and teamwork as part of a plan for overall health.
Start Date June 2004
Scope national
Type after school
Location urban, suburban, rural
Setting public school, private school, recreation center
Participants kindergarten and elementary school students
Number of Sites/Grantees 964 sites in 2005–2006
Number Served 113,186 youth in the 2005–06 school year
Components DMI is implemented in existing after school programs. DMI includes the following materials: activity books available in English and Spanish for two different grade levels (K–2 and 3–6); game card decks for the two grade levels, including leader and game instruction cards, physical activity cards, portion size cards, and Food Guide Pyramid reference cards; and a parent newsletter, available in English and Spanish.
Funding Level Deal Me In is free to all California after school programs every year. Outside of California, the program costs $80 for a complete set of 20 upper (grades K–2) and 20 lower (grades 3–6) grade student work books to cover the printing costs of the materials. After the initial set of 40 workbooks, additional student activity booklets and parent materials are available for $15 per set.
Funding Sources Not applicable


Evaluation

Overview The evaluation sought to determine whether youth participants were meeting the DMI-targeted youth outcomes as identified by the program guide.
Evaluators Erika Takada Evaluation and Consulting
Evaluations Profiled Program Evaluation: Deal Me In. Food and Fitness, A Self-Contained Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Program for the After-School Setting
Evaluations Planned Future evaluations will focus on changes in knowledge and behavior and will include a comparison group.
Report Availability Takada, E. (2005). Program evaluation: Deal Me In. Food and Fitness, a self-contained nutrition education and physical activity program for the after-school setting. Sacramento, CA: Dairy Council of California. Available at www.dairycouncilofca.org/edu/edu_dmi_eval.htm


Contacts

Program Trina Robertson, MS, RD
Project Manager
Dairy Council of California
2151 Michelson Drive, Suite 235
Irvine, CA 92612
Tel: 949-756-7892, ext. 214
Email: trinar@dairycouncilofca.org
Evaluation Erika Takada, MPH
Erika Takada Evaluation and Consulting
324 Metzgar Street
Half Moon Bay CA 94019
Tel: 650-868-1144
Email: erika.takada@gmail.com
Profile Updated June 6, 2006

Evaluation: Program Evaluation: Deal Me In. Food and Fitness, A Self-Contained Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Program for the After-School Setting


Evaluation Description

Evaluation Purpose To determine whether youth participants were able to recognize and choose healthy food options, choose physical activities that contributed to their health, identify appropriate portion sizes, and select healthy breakfast and snack food options. In addition, the evaluation examined how DMI was implemented.
Evaluation Design Quasi-Experimental and Non-Experimental: Fifteen sites were recruited for the evaluation, with 13 of these ultimately included in the evaluation (one program was unable to implement DMI, while a second returned unusable data).

Surveys were administered to youth by program leaders at the beginning of the program year (pretest) and again at the end of the year (posttest). In total, 143 K–2 youth and 179 grade 3–6 youth had pretest/posttest data. The average age of the K–2 children was 6.3 years. Forty-three percent were female, and 51% were male (with the remainder not answering the question). Of this age group, 22% were in kindergarten, 32% were in first grade, and 43% were in second grade (with the remainder not answering the question). The average age of the grade 3–6 youth was 9.1 years. There were approximately equal percentages of boys and girls. Of this age group, 27% were in third grade, 39% were in fourth grade, 24% were in fifth grade, and 7% were in sixth grade (with the remainder not answering the question).

Activity reports and program leader surveys were also collected at each site to capture information on the implementation of DMI. Finally, a total of 12 observations were conducted from 5 of the 13 sites.
Data Collection Methods Observation: Observations focused on how DMI was implemented and how youth participated in the activities.

Secondary Source/Data Review: Activity reports were completed by the program leaders to evaluate each specific activity/game. These reports asked about the length of time it took to prepare for the activities, ease of implementation, length of implementation, whether program leaders had to make any adjustments to the activities in order to implement them in their specific programs. These reports also asked about youth's general response to the activities.

Surveys/Questionnaires: Youth surveys collected demographics (age, gender, and grade), and information on knowledge and habits in the following four categories: physical activity, food groups, healthy snacks and breakfasts, and portion size. The physical activity section listed 16 typical youth activities, both active (e.g., bicycling, dancing) and sedentary (e.g., watching television). It asked youth how often they performed each activity during the previous week ranging from “not at all” to “almost every day.” For youth in grades 3–6, this section also asked how physically active they were on a typical day. The food group section listed a variety of typical foods and asked youth to classify them into food groups according to the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. The healthy snack and breakfast section listed a variety of typical snack and breakfast foods and asked youth to identify whether or not they were a part of a healthy snack or breakfast. Finally the portion size section listed a variety of common foods and asked youth to identify the correct portion size for each according to the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. For each section, one point was assigned to each correct response and a composite score was calculated for each section. Two different surveys were administered: one for youth in grades K–2 (to match the K–2 DMI activities), and another for youth in grades 3–6 (to match the 3–6 DMI activities). Their results are reported separately.

The survey of program leaders measured satisfaction with the overall DMI program; ease of implementation; and how appropriate DMI was in an after school setting.
Data Collection Timeframe Data were collected in the fall of 2004.


Findings:
Formative/Process Findings

Activity Implementation The majority (78%) of program leaders found the activity book to be helpful in teaching nutrition and physical activity concepts, and they all felt that the DMI card games were helpful and met their after school program needs. The majority (78%) of program leaders also felt that the instructions were helpful.

When asked if they planned to continue to use DMI, 56% of program leaders said that they would, and 44% reported that they would not. Reasons given for not continuing with DMI included complaints about the time and energy needed for activities (too much preparation time required, too time consuming, lack of time, too complicated, too much leader direction required) and the fact that activities were not interesting to youth in grades 3–6.
Program Context/Infrastructure The program leaders expressed that their after school programs benefited from having DMI and that it fulfilled a need to teach the benefits of nutrition and physical activity. One director reported, “We try to teach the children about good nutrition, and sometimes I have a hard time coming up with new ideas. Your program made it soooo much easier for me.”

When asked if they felt that DMI could help youth to improve their eating habits, 22% of program leaders believed it definitely would, 56% said that it probably would, and another 22% replied that they “couldn't say.” Similarly, when they were asked if DMI could help youth to be more physically active, 11% said it definitely would, 44% said “probably,” 33% replied that they “couldn't say,” and 11% responded “probably not.”
Satisfaction Eighty-nine percent of the program leaders reported that, overall, the youth enjoyed participating in DMI very much.


Summative/Outcome Findings

Youth Development At posttest, K–2 youth averaged a physical activity score of 2.9 (out of a possible score of 7, where 7 meant that youth were active “almost every day”) while grades 3–6 youth averaged a score of 2.8. There was virtually no change in physical activity score from pretest to posttest for either age group.

At posttest, running, walking, watching television, and playing outside were the most popular of the activities listed on the youth survey. The following percentages of K–2 youth reported that they engaged in these activities every day or almost every day: 60% did some running, 65% did some walking, 71% watched television, and 76% played outside. The following percentages of youth in grades 3–6 reported that they engaged in these activities almost every day: 56% did some running, 63% did some walking, 67% played outside, and 74% watched television.

Both grades K–2 and 3–6 youth significantly increased their ability to correctly identify food groups (p < .001 for each): K–2 youth averaged a posttest score of 7.4 out of a possible score of 10, compared to a pretest score of 5.4, while grades 3–6 youth averaged a posttest score of 11 out of a possible score of 13, compared to a pretest score of 10.0.

K–2 youth significantly improved their healthy snack and breakfast scores from pretest to posttest from 11.1 to 11.9 out of a possible score of 15 (p < .01). Grades 3–6 youth improved their healthy snack and breakfast scores from pretest to posttest from 14.5 to 14.8 out of a possible score of 18, though this improvement was not significant.

K–2 youth significantly improved their portion size scores from pretest to posttest from 2.9 to 3.4, out of a possible score of 11 (p < .05). Grades 3–6 youth improved their portion size scores from pretest to posttest from 3.2 to 3.6, out of a possible score of 12, though this trend was only marginally significant (p < .07).

Of grades 3–6 youth, though not statistically significant, 4% reported on the posttest that they were not physically active during their free time, compared to 9% who reported this at pretest. The proportion saying that they would be physically active during their free time increased from 56% at pretest to 61% at posttest. These questions were not asked of younger youth.

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Published by Harvard Family Research Project