School nurse demonstrates that mini-grant funding can improve elementary nutrition education

The purpose of this demonstration project was to determine whether the school nurse can facilitate changes in the health education curriculum. By making resources and a packaged curriculum available to teachers, and by offering in-service education about these materials, teachers were willing to spend more classroom time on nutrition. The students in each grade level K-6 experienced significant gains in knowledge because of the increased time allotment and the utilization of available materials. It appears that the school nurse can have a positive effect on the health education curriculum.