Illinois Nutrition Education and Training Program

FREE NET Statewide Training for Child Care and School Staff

The Illinois Nutrition Education and Training (NET) program provides free health education training for Illinois child care and school staff, including teachers, coaches, food service staff and school nurses at your school or childcare site. Training programs provide information and strategies for promoting healthful food choices and an active lifestyles for K- Grade 12 students. This service is free of charge to schools, child care sites and related professional organizations in Illinois. We are not able to provide training to student or parent groups. To schedule a workshop, call 800-466-7998 or use the NET Workshop Request Form below.

Illinois NET is an approved professional development provider, offering CPDU credits that Illinois teachers can use toward the renewal of their certificates. A list of current NET workshops along with a description and suggested audience is provided below.

Most workshops are approximately 1.5 to 2 hours in length, but can often be adapted to fit your time requirements.

NET Workshop Request Form

Free local wellness policy training for school staff

Intended Audience: Policymakers, administrators, teachers, food service staff, nurses, coaches involved in implementing local wellness policy

The ABC's of Local Wellness Policies—Provides an overview of the new local wellness policy requirement in the 2004 Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill. It covers the policy requirements, basic steps to development and resources available to help school districts develop a winning policy.

Putting Your Local Wellness Policy Into Action—Learn about key resources and strategies to help you meet legislative requirements for nutrition education, physical activities and other wellness activates as well as implementing nutrition guidelines in school. Participants will receive hands-on experience in evaluating curriculum and programs.

NEW! HealthierUS School Challenge: A Sneak Peek at Model School Criteria for Student Wellness—Provides key information on USDA HealthierUS School Challenge - a voluntary national recognition program. Covers criteria for Silver and Gold certification including standards for school meals as well as for other foods sold, nutrition education and physical activity. Provides strategies and resources for success, including discussion of a mini-grant opportunity. Participants will receive hands-on training evaluating lunch menus against HealthierUS School Challenge standards. (Elementary)

Building a Healthy A La Carte Program—Provides skills-based training and marketing resources to school food service staff to enable them to shape nutritionally and fiscally sound a la carte programs. (Jr. high/high school)

ONLINE Workshop Nutrition Education That Works: An Integrated Approach—Provides educators with the information and skills needed to successfully implement Team Nutrition curricula and integrate the new MyPyramid. Learners can complete the workshop at the own pace. Sign-up is easy and completing the course provides 2 CPDU credits (PreK-Grade 5). Access here.

Free training for PreK-Grade 12 health educators

Intended Audience: Educators including curriculum coordinators, teachers, school nurses, child care staff and food service staff involved in health education

NEW! Color Me Healthy—Provides fun, innovative, interactive learning opportunities on physical activity and healthy eating. Learn how to teach toddlers ages 4 and 5 years old that healthy food and physical activity are fun by stimulating all of their senses and by using color and music. (PreK)

Kaleidoscope Cafe—Provides skills and tools needed to help young children establish healthy eating behaviors. Covers the nutritional needs of young children and creative ways to promote healthy eating, including how to add variety to menus and snack selections. (PreK-K)

Multicultural Make and Taste (Social Science)—Provides teaching strategies and hands-on food activities that serve as a springboard to cultural exploration and nutrition education in the classroom as well as provide children with an opportunity to appreciate cultural diversity. (PreK-Grade 3)

NEW! Got Dirt? - Growing Healthy Kids (Science, Language Arts, Social Science, History, Health, Math, Art and Music)—Learn how to bring core subjects alive and encourage healthy eating and increased physical activity for children and adolescents with a garden project. Got Dirt? - a garden toolkit for the Midwest - will help you plan and implement a successful garden to support community and school wellness initiatives. PreK-Grade 3)

Body Walk (Health)—Provides teens and their advisors with tools and information to plan and implement a fun, educational tour of the body for young children to promote healthy habits. Coordinating classroom lessons and a how-to manual are included. This is an excellent club or service learning project. All props for the Body Walk program can be checked out from the Illinois NET Program Loan Library. (teens teaching K-5 students)

A Game Plan for Sports Nutrition (Physical Education) — Provides teachers and coaches with skills to educate athletes to be physically fit and eat healthy diets that are nutritionally sound. (Grades 7-12)

Nutrition Education Made Easy—Provides information on Illinois NET Program services and resources, including training, technical assistance, the Illinois State Board of Education's, Nutrition Loan Library, and the www.kidseatwell.org website. Participants also engage in hands-on review of relevant resources. (K-Grade 12)

NET Workshop Request Form