Healthy Start/ Départ Santé (HSDS)

In a pilot study, the program was shown to be effective in helping educators increase physical activity and healthy eating opportunities. However, the impact of the program on young children’s healthy eating, total food intake, and physical activity has yet to be determined. The HSDS program is now being expanded to early learning centres in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick as these two provinces have a prevalence of overweight and obesity among children ages 0-5 years above the national average.

The implementation of MenuPlanPro^TM, a menu planning app, has been approved for phase III of HSDS. This will involve the implementation of a menu resource in the form of an online tool to help train childcare centre staff to prepare healthy meals for children. Phase III also includes family engagement and the cultural adaptation of HSDS with a focus on newcomers and Indigenous Peoples. This study is led by Réseau Santé en français de la Saskatchewan and collaborates with researchers from the fields of nutrition, epidemiology, kinesiology, and computer sciences from the University of Saskatchewan and University of New Brunswick as well as centres such as SPHERU.