Let’s Be Healthy Grant

Child care centers play an important role in establishing healthy behaviors in our youngest residents. Children who have proper nutrition and physical activity from birth are better prepared for success when they begin school. One way to do this is to nurture healthy habits by getting kids involved in growing food in an edible garden!

The Let’s Be Healthy grant opportunity provides up to $2,500 to child care center owners to purchase materials to install an edible garden in their center’s outdoor learning environment. This grant opportunity is available to centers located in food deserts—areas with limited access to grocery stores or supermarkets. Grant funding may also be used to purchase small kitchen equipment required to enroll into the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Making an Impact

The goal of the Let’s Be Healthy grant opportunity is to increase Louisiana child care providers’ access to local, fresh food through farm to early care and education strategies. Farm to early care and education is a set of strategies that offers increased access to healthy, local foods through procurement, gardening opportunities and food and agriculture education. This strategies could include:

• Weekly menus that include local, fresh food
• Staff professional development on gardening, food, nutrition and agriculture education
• Ongoing communication with families about local foods included in meals and snacks
• Gardening opportunities that teach children how to plant, maintain, observe, harvest, wash and taste fresh produce

Facilities will also support their staff in making healthy choices by implementing specific, evidence-based benchmarks found in the Child Care Center WellSpot Designation program.

Get Inspired!

Last year, Chan’s Scholar Toddlers used the Let’s Be Healthy grant funding to build a vegetable garden! Their director, Chante Buchanan said, “It’s been a good way to get the children excited to eat more vegetables. This has sparked their curiosity and encouraged them to try it even if they don’t think they’ll like it.”

Read the Story

Become a WellSpot

By becoming a WellSpot, you will make a lasting change by implementing policy, systems and environmental strategies that make the healthy choice, the easy choice!

Grant recipients will complete steps to become a Child Care Center WellSpot! WellSpots are places and spaces in Louisiana that voluntarily implement healthy initiatives in their environment to help their employees and community live well. Organizations that meet certain wellness benchmarks are designated as a Level 1, 2 or 3 WellSpot—with Level 1 being the highest. By implementing changes to improve the health of employees and children through WellSpot Designation, child care centers are equipped to model healthy behaviors to guide children in building healthy habits that last for a lifetime.

Let’s Be Healthy participants will receive support to Become a WellSpot, which will include technical assistance to:

• Complete a WellSpot assessment
• Implement a tobacco-free policy
• Complete Go NAPSACC benchmarks
• Implement one additional benchmark of choice

About the Let’s Be Healthy Grant

The Fall 2023 application period has closed.

Grantees will work with a Well-Ahead team member who will provide technical assistance and resources to assist with implementation of WellSpot benchmarks and grant requirements. For any portion of the application, implementation and evaluation, Well-Ahead will provide technical assistance to make a program or intervention a success.