The Out-of-School Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative (OSNAP) helps create healthier out-of-school environments for children.
Out-of-School Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative (OSNAP)
The Out-of-School Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative (OSNAP) is an evidence-based initiative that helps out-of-school time programs improve policies and practices to help kids move more and eat healthier snacks. The goal of OSNAP is to support policy and practice strategies that promote nutrition and physical activity in out-of-school-time settings. OSNAP focuses on six nutrition and physical activity goals. It provides training, tools, and resources to help programs make sustainable changes to promote increased physical activity and consumption of healthy snacks.
More about our program
OSNAP offers several resources that guide out-ofschool time programs in creating healthy changes in their programs.
The OSNAP Model
Learn about the OSNAP process to create healthy changes in out-of-school-time programs.
6 Simple Goals
Explore nutrition and physical activity goals to help create healthier out-of-school-time programs.
My OSNAP
Use interactive tools to assess your program’s practices and policies and learn how to improve them.
Evidence Base for OSNAP
Researchers have studied the effectiveness and cost of two training models, an in-person train-the-trainer strategy and an interactive online strategy, for scaling up the OSNAP intervention nationally via a partnership with the YMCA.
Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The mission of the Prevention Research Center on Nutrition & Physical Activity at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is to work with community partners to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate effective strategies that will improve population nutrition and physical activity, prevent excess weight gain and chronic disease, and advance health equity.
Food & Fun After School
Food & Fun After School (© President and Fellows of Harvard College and YMCA of the USA) is a curriculum designed to promote healthy habits in out-of-school programs. Eleven teaching units help afterschool staff infuse healthy snacks and recipes, physically active games, and creative learning activities into regular program schedules. Curriculum materials are available free of charge.
Acknowledgments
OSNAP is an environmental and policy change intervention based on the social-ecological model and a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. With our community partners, we identified and supported sustainable policy and environmental strategies that promote increased access to healthy snacks and opportunities for physical activity that can be used in a variety of OST settings.The OSNAP initiative has been broadly disseminated throughout Massachusetts and resources and online tools are available through the OSNAP website. Community research partners representing the Boston Public Health Commission advised the OSNAP researchers in establishing nutrition and physical activity goals, adapted from previous work with the YMCA of the U.S.A. Food & Fun After School (© President and Fellows of Harvard College and YMCA of the USA) was developed under a gift from Paul and Mary Finnegan. The second edition was revised under a gift from the Donald and Sue Pritzker Nutrition and Fitness Initiative.
Contact Us
For more information about OSNAP, contact us
Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
677 Huntington Ave
Kresge Building, 7th Floor
Boston, MA 02115
For questions about OSNAP resources or making changes at your afterschool program, contact
Bekka Lee:
rlee@hsph.harvard.edu