CSU, Chico News

The Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion (CNAP) at California State University, Chico, is holding an open house on Dec. 7 from 3 to 5 p.m., at its new suite of offices in Room 201, 25 Main Street.

CNAP is the umbrella organization for six funded programs, the largest of which is the Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium, with an annual budget of $1.6 million. The total budget for all six programs is almost $2 million per year. The six programs provided $236,000 in student wages for interns and other student employees of the programs for the 2005-2006 year.

SCNAC provided 90 percent of the student wages, and the other programs-including OPT for Fit Kids, Safe Schools-Healthy Students, StepFit and 5 a Day-provided the remaining 10 percent. The total payroll is the largest payroll for a grant-funded program at CSU, Chico.

Students are paid to prepare nutrition education and physical activity promotion materials and implement the use of these materials in more than 50 schools and community agencies in Northern California. They come from many different departments, including the departments of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Nursing, Health and Community Services, Kinesiology, Recreation, Sociology, Art, Communication Design, Business, Education, Child Development and Liberal Studies.

"The service-learning experience that students receive is immeasurably important to them," said Cindy Wolff, director of CNAP. "It provides a venue for the application of information that they are learning in their academic programs." Stephanie Bianco-Simeral, a first-year faculty member in Nutrition and Food Sciences, works with Wolff in the supervision of the student interns at the center. "We especially encourage faculty who may be interested in the training materials we've developed and in the model we've created for supervision to come to the open house. It was a challenge to develop these materials and ways of organizing students into teams that ensure that experienced interns help supervise new interns, and we'd really like to share them with others."

"The Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion is a wonderful example of how students and faculty working together enhances the learning experience for students," said Interim Vice Provost for Research Katie Milo. "I'm hoping the public will join us at the open house on Dec. 7 to celebrate the impressive work the faculty, staff and students at CNAP are doing."

Wolff noted how much both the College of Natural Sciences and the CSU, Chico Research Foundation have helped in the development of the center. "They have provided both monetary support and space, and the foundation has given us essential technical assistance."

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 8:30 am and is filed under 2006 Fall.