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March 12, 2004
The Power of Choice is an after-school program developed jointly by FDA and USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. The materials guide pre-teens toward a healthier lifestyle by motivating and empowering them to make smarter food and physical activity choices in real-life settings. A Leader's Guide, containing ten sequenced interactive sessions engage adolescents in fun activities that develop skills and encourage personal development related to choosing foods wisely, preparing foods safely, and reducing sedentary behaviors. Most activities require little or no pre-planning and are simple to do. The Leader's Guide also includes easy snack recipes, 170 Nutrition Facts cards, and posters on four key topics, and a computer disk provides supplemental activities to each of the 10 sessions, a self-training video for the leader, community support suggestions, and much more.
Current status: Currently, the Power of Choice is being distributed either in hard copy or it can be downloaded on the Team Nutrition Web site, USDA's Food and Nutrition service (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/lab-poc.html). Of the original 15,000 copies published, less than 4,000 copies remain for free distribution to those belonging to USDA's Child Nutrition Programs (includes schools). Response from users has been virtually unanimously positive: "One of the best government products I've seen in a long time"; "I love this material. Please send me more"; "I think it's great! Exciting!! I've been needing something like this - thank you for doing such a great job".
