Why is Healthy Eating in Recreation Settings important and how does this eCourse help?
For many communities, recreation facilities are important community hubs and are visited often by children and other community residents. Recreation facilities are an important place to adopt practices and policies that support healthy eating behaviours. Healthy food environments make it easier for people to identify, choose and enjoy healthy food and drink options.
This FREE eCourse provides resources, examples, and tools to help champions successfully make healthy changes to their recreation facility food environment.
- Earn module completion certificates for modules 1 through 8
- Earn a full course completion certificate and letter of commendation for completing all 8 HERS modules
- Complete modules in any order, and at your own pace
Interested in learning more about HERS? Click here to browse our list of resources.
Start Learning:
Module 1: Introduction into Healthy Eating in Recreation Settings
This introductory module provides an overview of healthy eating in recreation settings. The other modules in this series will build off of the background information provided in this module.
Time: 15 minutes
Begin Module!
Module 2: How Healthy is Your Environment?
This module will cover evaluating the food environment in recreation facilities. Learn how to evaluate the food environment in a recreation facility, write a healthy vending contract and request for proposals, and how to evaluate and celebrate successes.
Time: 15 minutes
Begin Module!
Module 3: Creating Healthy Food Environments in Recreation Facilities Through Policy
This module will discuss the role of policy in creating healthy food environments in recreation settings. It will also outline key steps and considerations for promoting healthy food and drink policy in a facility or community.
Time: 15 minutes
Begin Module!
Module 4: A Business Case
This module will teach learners how to build a strong business case for healthy eating in recreation facilities. Learn the basics of creating budget proposals, delivering patron surveys and how to make healthy eating make “cents”.
Time: 15 minutes
Begin Module!
Module 5: Marketing Healthy Food and Drinks: the 4 P’s
This module will introduce the role that marketing plays in selling healthy food and drinks using the 4 P’s, making foods available, affordable and accessible.
Time: 15 minutes
Begin Module!
Module 6: Identify Healthy Foods and Drinks
This module was designed to help learners identify healthy food and drink choices and healthy cooking methods and equipment.
Begin Module!Time: 15 minutes
Module 7: Concession Stand Menu Makeover
This module will share ideas and practical tips to help learners add healthy foods and drinks to concession menus. It will highlight ingredient substitutions and provide suggestions for making common, best selling concession items more healthy. This module will also include guidance on healthy snack packs and sides as well as local chef recommendations on maximizing food use to reduce food waste.
Time: 15 minutes
Begin Module!
Module 8: Fueling Athletes with Healthy Food and Drinks
This module provides information on how coaches can help to fuel athletes with the appropriate nutrients. It will lead into details about timing of nutrition, hydration and supplement usage. This module also provides guidance on how to plan proper nutrition when on the go and how to make healthier eating environments.
Time: 30 minutes
Begin Module!The Healthy Eating in Recreation Settings eCourse, modules 1-8, was developed collaboratively by the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association’s Communities ChooseWell program, Alberta Health Services and the Alberta Policy Coalition for Chronic Disease Prevention.
To help further your learning, Communities ChooseWell created two additional Healthy Eating modules through a recreation lens!
Module 9: Indigenous Traditional Food Systems
This module provides an introductory look into Indigenous Traditional Food Systems within Alberta. Learn from Elders and Indigenous communities across the province why returning to a Traditional Food System is important, how communities are returning to it and what role you can play in supporting Traditional Food Systems.
Time: 1.0 – 1.5 hours
Begin Module!
Module 10: Healthy Eating in Community Spaces
Developed in partnership with World Urban Parks, this module explores the opportunities and strategies to create healthy food environments in all the spaces where our communities recreate. Gain tips and tools for bringing healthy food and drinks into community and cultural events, public programming as well as our parks and green spaces.
Time: 1.5 hours
Begin Module!