CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Go NAPSACC is a North Carolina child care initiative that is expanding into five new states. Go NAP SACC is an online tool that helps child care programs foster healthy eating and physical activity habits in young children. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP), which runs Go NAPSACC, has selected Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Virginia to pilot the program over the next six months.
Many young children attend child care programs, and these programs become their “home away from home.” As partners with families, child care programs have a big role to play by helping children develop healthy habits that can serve them throughout their lives. Enjoyable mealtimes where fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods are served help children learn to like these foods. Indoor and outdoor playtime not only let children burn energy, but also help fuel brain development and learning.
Go NAP SACC helps programs set and reach goals to improve their menus and mealtimes, increase opportunities for enriching active play, and make other healthy changes. Technical assistance professionals in each of the selected states will be working with child care programs to help them set and reach goals that will help them become healthier places for children to learn and grow.
Go NAPSACC is the online version of NAPSACC (Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care), an evidence-based program created in 2002 by a team of child obesity researchers at UNC Chapel Hill. It has been used successfully by child care programs in dozens of states throughout the country over the past decade.
This pilot project is made possible with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation.
For more information, visit the Go NAPSACC website at www.gonapsacc.org.