The Supplemental Assistance Program (SNAP) and SNAP Education agree that early intervention improves nutrition and overall health (https://snaped.fns.usda.gov). However, using the standard recall methods to measure the impact with children under 4 years of age is quite a challenge! 

While working with the 3 and 4-year-old children at Little Acorn Day Care Center, the SNAP-Ed Program assistant did an experimental test using the Eat Well ans Move Evaluation for Kindergarten to second grade (the earliest standard evaluation tool available). The results were positive, with 75% of the class showing over all improvement on the assessment. The results are encouraging, but perhaps do not tell the whole story.

The evaluation tool seemed to pose some confusion for this age group as the pages are very busy and they aren't able to read the directions themselves. Going forward, the evaluation might be structured differently for younger children. The children do very well with music interactivity and physical activity. By reviewing the past lessons, we are able to build a knowledge base and the children can easily recall the information they have learned even when some were confused by the written evaluation. Most of the children were able to verbally recall the majority of the material, even when they weren't able to correctly pick the answer on the written recall.

In conclusion, based on the current tools, we are getting satisfactory results for our programming, and most importantly, we are providing building blocks at a young age for a healthy life and improved nutrition understanding.

The Director of Little Acorns is very excited with the SNAP-Ed programming and the progress she is seeing in the children's knowledge of healthy eating and food choices. SNAP-Ed will continue delivering this important program.