In today’s episode, we chat with Ava DeBovis and Daniel Hatcher from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The Alliance works with NRPA on Commit to Health — our program to increase healthy eating and physical activity during out-of-school time programs managed by park and recreation departments.

Ava and Daniel address common barriers park and recreation staff may feel when attempting to create healthier out-of-school time and provide easy and practical solutions for overcoming them. They use their mythbusting prowess to debunk:

1. Healthy out-of-school time is too expensive.
2. My staff won’t buy into healthy out-of-school time.
3. I don’t have time to change or implement new policies.
4. My families are going to push back on healthy celebrations in lieu of “traditional” celebrations like cupcakes and pizza parties.
5. I do not have enough support or resources to do healthy out-of-school time.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Commit to Health
• Amazon Healthier Generation Store
• Parks and Recreation Youth Engagement Guide
• Alliance Food Planner Tool (for healthy holiday celebrations and more!)
• Wildlife Explorers
• Parks and Recreation Implementation Guide (and more resources!)
• Alliance for a Healthier Generation Website
• Healthy Out-of-School Time Assessment
• Action Planning Tools
• Healthy After School (HOST) Blog