Child Care Center Becomes Model for Giving Children a Healthy Start
Nash Community College’s Betsy B. Currin Child Development Center has been distinguished as a Shape NC Demonstration Site.
Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children is an early childhood obesity prevention program that has dramatically improved child care environments across the state. This recognition means that the Betsy B. Currin Child Development Center has improved nutrition, physical activity, and outdoor learning environments for children in a way that meets standards for healthy best practices for early childhood.
Angela Nieves, Child Development Center Director says, “We are truly serving the whole child. Shape NC has enabled the Betsy B. Currin Child Development Center to improve the care given to the children and families it serves, by providing physical activity, a more naturalized outdoor environment, and by implementing policies to support these changes.”
Shape NC is a six-year, $6 million initiative of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) Foundation and The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. (NCPC) created to increase the number of children starting kindergarten at a healthy weight and ready to learn.
In its first three years, Shape NC engaged communities spanning 27 counties to improve healthy eating and active play for over one thousand of our state’s children. Now in its sixth year, the program has expanded to engage 213 additional child care centers.
“We are thrilled that after six years of Shape NC, the program has grown to reach 213 child care sites serving over 7,000 of our state’s children,” said Cindy Watkins, President of NCPC. “Our partnership with the BCBSNC Foundation means that more children will get a healthy start to a productive life.”
In the first three years, child care centers across North Carolina almost doubled the number of healthy best practices adopted for the promotion of health and nutrition. Significant improvements occurred in increasing active play, limiting screen time, offering healthy food and beverages, and promoting outdoor play.
These accomplishments include 85 percent of children being provided with 90 minutes or more of physical activity daily (up from 51 percent), 80 percent of children being provided with fruit two or more times per day (up from 34 percent), and 60 percent of children being provided with vegetables two or more times per day (up from 32 percent). In addition, early trends showed gradual improvement in the percent of children who reach a healthy weight by kindergarten.
“Shape NC has accomplished amazing results in its first six years. We are so proud of the Shape NC Demonstration Centers – they embody our vision of healthy places across the state and their impact on children’s health is central to our work to improve the health of North Carolinians,” said Kathy Higgins, President of the BCBSNC Foundation. “We look forward to supporting their leadership to give all young children in our state a healthy start.”
To learn more about Shape NC, visit the website here. To learn more about Nash Community College Child Development Center, visit the www.nashcc.edu.
Smart Start, a network of nonprofit local partnerships led by The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. (NCPC), creates innovative solutions to measurably increase learning and the healthy development of children birth to five. Smart Start gives local communities the freedom and responsibility to determine how to increase the health, well-being and development of their children based on the needs and resources of their local communities. NCPC establishes measurable statewide goals and communities determine the best approach to achieving them. For more information, visit www.smartstart.org.
Since 2000, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) Foundation has invested more than $100 million into North Carolina communities through more than 750 grants. The BCBSNC Foundation is an independent, philanthropic affiliate of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, focused specifically on improving health outcomes of populations served by safety net organizations; increasing physical activity and access to healthy, local food; and increasing the effectiveness of North Carolina nonprofit organizations and their leaders. BCBSNC Foundation grants address some of our state’s most dire health needs – among them, childhood obesity and the growing disparity in affordable and accessible dental care. More information is available at www.bcbsncfoundation.org.
