Water is the best drink option for kids and adults. It has zero calories, and tap water is free! Water is a healthier choice than other drinks, such as soda, juice, and sports and energy drinks. Making clean, cold, free water more accessible in environments like schools and afterschool programs is a critical way to ensure kids are better hydrated. Limited access to water during school and outside of school hours can pose problems for children’s health.
Curricula & Trainings
Eat Well & Keep Moving
Cheung LWY, Dart H, Kalin S, Otis B, Gortmaker SL. Eat Well & Keep Moving: An Interdisciplinary Elementary Curriculum Nutrition and Physical Activity (Third Edition). Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois, 2016.
Newsletter Handouts
Newsletter handouts to send home (educators can send home these sample newsletters to inform parents and complement the Eat Well & Keep Moving lesson topic being taught in the classroom). Newsletter handouts related to drinking water:
–Stay Cool
–Be Sugar Smart
Trainings
Training Workshop for Food Service Staff
Six training modules for food service staff provide an overview of the Eat Well & Keep Moving program, focusing on the role of food services in making the link between classroom and cafeteria. An additional lunch break demonstrates some cafeteria dishes.
Food & Fun After School
Full, 600-page Food & Fun After School curriculum
This curriculum includes all units, planning tools, recipes, and parent materials. Units related to drinking water:
– Unit 3: Sugar Sweetened Drinks—Be Sugar Smart!
– Unit 10: Hydration—Be Active, Stay Cool!
– Unit 11: Food & Fun Finale!
Staff Training
Food & Fun After School has several training strategies to help afterschool staff learn about and implement the curriculum, including training videos.
Parent Handouts
These handouts – available in English, Spanish, and Chinese – include topic area information and tips for success for parents to create healthier environments for their children. Parent handouts related to drinking water:
– Hydration
Learn more about Food & Fun After School here.
Planet Health
Citation: Carter J, Wiecha JL, Peterson KE, Nobrega S, Gortmaker SL. Planet Health: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Teaching Middle School Nutrition and Physical Activity (Second Edition). Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics; 2007.
Learn more about Planet Health here.
Fact Sheets
Out-of-School Nutrition and Physical Activity (OSNAP) Initiative
Tip Sheets
These tip sheets, informed by out-of-school/afterschool program experiences, can help afterschool and other out-of-school-time programs make sustainable changes to program practices. They are practical guides designed to simplify healthy changes and describe promising practices for out-of-school/afterschool staff. OSNAP tip sheets related to drinking water:
–Water, Water Everywhere!
–Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
–Healthy Staff, Healthy Kids!
Learn more about OSNAP here.
Tools & Guides
HPRC Water Access Scan Tool for Schools
This tool can be helpful for assessing the availability of water fountains, water coolers, hydration stations, and other sources of free water.
Keep it Flowing: A Practical Guide to School Drinking Water Planning, Maintenance, & Repair
This guide addresses the practical side of drinking water in schools by outlining the steps needed to provide adequate numbers of properly maintained drinking fountains and tap water dispensers in school buildings. It is designed for the people who make our nation’s schools run day-in and day-out, including those within state and tribal agencies and organizations, districts, school boards and local education authorities and schools.
Grab a Cup, Fill it Up!
Simple posters encouraging students to drink water and directing them to a water source location. These posters were used in a school-based cafeteria intervention that provided disposable cups near water fountains.
Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) Project
>>Featured resource:
Strategy Profile: Promoting Water Consumption in Schools
Promoting water consumptions in school involves increasing water consumption among elementary and middle school students (grades K-8) with the installation of chilled drinking water dispensers in school cafeterias with viable plumbing in schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program. This profile describes the estimated benefits, activities, resources, and leadership needed to implement this strategy, which can be useful for planning and prioritization purposes.
Learn more about the CHOICES Project here and browse more tools & guides related to drinking water in the CHOICES Resource Library.
Food & Fun & Family
A Guide to Help Busy Families Develop Healthier Habits at Home
This guide contains lots tips and ideas for meals and activities that are healthy and fun for the whole family.
Recipe Packet
This recipe packet contains fun, healthy, and inexpensive recipes that are quick to prepare for both snack and dinner time.
Learn more about Food & Fun here.
Out-of-School Nutrition and Physical Activity (OSNAP) Initiative
Fast Maps
These tools are designed to help out-of-school/afterschool program staff overcome systematic challenges that go beyond the site level. For example, addressing issues of limited space for physical activity in out-of-school/afterschool programs might involve meeting with school principals or partnering with nearby community spaces. OSNAP Fast Maps related to drinking water:
–Improving Water Consumption
–Eliminating Sugary Drinks from Snacks Served
Practice Assessment Tool
This form can help out-of-school/afterschool program staff see where their program is currently at regarding the OSNAP standards. This form will help identify areas an organization can take action on to improve the health of kids.
Policy Writing Guide
This guide provides suggestions for language that can be directly inserted into parent or family handbooks, staff handbooks, general program handbooks, letters to families, staff training materials, or even schedules and menus. This can be used to write a policy for eliminating sugary drinks from being served and providing access to water.
Additional resources for healthy snacks and beverages, including a water pitcher sanitation guide.
Learn more about OSNAP here.
Research Briefs & Reports
Massachusetts CHOICES (MA-CHOICES) Project
Research Brief: Massachusetts: Water Dispensers in Schools
–View as an accessible webpage
–Download as a PDF
Research Brief: Boston, MA: Creating Healthier Afterschool Environments (OSNAP)
–View as an accessible webpage
–Download as a PDF
Learn more about the MA-CHOICES project here.
Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) Project
>>Featured resource:
Brief: Improving Drinking Water Equity and Access in California Schools
This brief summarizes a CHOICES Learning Collaborative Partnership model examining a strategy to improve access to drinking water in California schools. This voluntary water equity and access program involves the installation of touchless chilled water dispensers on or near school cafeteria lunch lines in K-8 non-charter California public schools that have adequate plumbing.
Learn more about the CHOICES Project here and browse more research briefs & reports related to drinking water in the CHOICES Resource Library.
Safe Home Drinking Water
Case Study Briefs
These research briefs highlight findings from an assessment of state and local programs and policies for home water quality testing, home well water treatment device installation, filter pitcher distribution, and lead service line replacement:
-Executive Summary & all six case study briefs: All
-Individual files:
–Safe Home Drinking Water: A Series of Six Case Study Briefs – Executive Summary
–New Jersey Private Well Testing Act
–New Hampshire & Vermont Private Well Testing Via Primary Care Clinics
–The NH Water Well-Ness Initiative to Protect Pregnant WIC Participants from Contaminants in Private Well Water
–Porterville, CA: Point-of-Use Filtration & Bottled Water Delivery Pilot Program to Protect Pregnant People and Infants from Nitrates in Private Well Water
–Cincinnati Enhanced Lead Program to Replace Lead Service Lines
–Denver Water Filter Program
Learn more about the Safe Home Water project here.
Early Adopters: State Approaches to Testing School Drinking Water for Lead in the United States
These research briefs & full report take a closer look at states’ efforts related to testing school drinking water for lead.
–Full research report: Early Adopters: State Approaches to Testing School Drinking Water for Lead in the United States
–Healthy Eating Research Brief: Early Adopters: State Approaches to Testing School Drinking Water for Lead in the United States
State reports
Learn more about the Early Adopters project here.
AJPH Podcast, Sept 2017 – Water Access & Health Disparities in the U.S.
Lead author Carolyn Brooks, Dr. Anisha Patel, and Kelley Dearing-Smith discuss a massive public health problem which is rarely mentioned and probably underestimated — unequal access to water in the United States –in this podcast with the American Journal of Public Health hosted by Alfredo Morabia. Learn more about this research here.
External Resources
The Nutrition Source, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
–Healthy Drinks
–Water
National Drinking Water Alliance
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
CDC Healthy Schools Water Access, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN)
3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Toolkit, 2018, United States Environmental Protection Agency
Team Nutrition, United States Department of Food and Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service
Strategies for Improving Access to Drinking Water in Schools, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Bridging the Gap Research Program
Water Access in Schools, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
Water Availability During NSLP Meal Service, USDA Food and Nutrition Service