"Healthy Schools, Healthy People - It's a SNAP" FACT SHEET

Facts on the SNAP program

• The "Healthy Schools, Healthy People - It's a SNAP" program is a joint project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services, and The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA).
• The School Network for Absenteeism Prevention (SNAP) program seeks to improve hand hygiene habits among middle school personnel and students to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and reduce related absenteeism.
• SNAP is designed to motivate school administrators to facilitate school environments conducive to improving hand hygiene and reducing illness. SNAP encourages middle school students to identify and implement practical, inexpensive strategies and solutions for improving the quality and frequency of handwashing.
• SNAP seeks to demonstrate effective peer-to-peer handwashing education programs and ensure that school environments are conducive to simple preventative health behaviors such as handwashing.
• SNAP is a grassroots, education-based effort to improve health by making hand cleaning an integral part of the school day.
• The SNAP National Recognition Program motivated school teams from across the nation to create their own clean hands awareness projects. Classroom resources developed by the SNAP program and shared with schools like Goodrich Middle School help make hand hygiene a priority for students, teachers, school health personnel, administrators, and parents.
• The SNAP program was piloted in middle schools across the country in the winter and spring of 2002/2003. A panel reviewed all projects that were submitted to the SNAP program in the spring of 2003.
• Three schools earned national recognition for outstanding student efforts to promote hand hygiene and infection control. The Top Classroom Award went to Goodrich Middle School in Lincoln, Nebraska. Runner-up recipients were Hillside Elementary School in Roswell, Georgia, and Cape Henry Collegiate School, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• For information on how to participate in the 2004 SNAP program, contact www.itsasnap.org to request a toolkit.

Facts on Goodrich Middle School Science Class

• Twenty-six science class students from Goodrich Middle School in Lincoln, Nebraska received the Top Classroom Award by the SDA and CDC for their campaign in the SNAP National Recognition Program.
• Students created a comprehensive handwashing campaign including a DVD movie on proper handwashing techniques, a computer slide presentation, T-shirts, bookmarks, and posters on good hand hygiene in five languages (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Serbo-Croatian). The Goodrich campaign will be promoted schoolwide, complemented by school nurse demonstrations and awards for students with low absentee rates.
• For the participating science class, the SNAP project was integrated into the infectious disease unit in the third quarter, complementing existing curriculum.
• As the Top Classroom Award recipient, Goodrich received an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. for three students and a celebration for the class that produced the project. The Goodrich delegation attended a national recognition ceremony with acknowledgments by Vera Neslund, Acting Chief of Staff, CDC Office of the Director, Nancy Bock, SDA Vice President of Education, and Principal Elizabeth Scott and science teacher Jennifer Kiser of Goodrich Middle School.

Facts on hand hygiene

• According to CDC, the single most important thing we can do to keep from getting sick and spreading illness to others is to clean our hands.
• Nearly 22 million school days are lost due to the common cold and where certain strains of E. coli, salmonella and other bacteria can live on surfaces like cafeteria tables and doorknobs for up to two hours. (CDC, 1996)
• 52.2 million cases of the common cold affect Americans under the age of 17 each year. (CDC, 1996)
• Students don't wash their hands often or well. In one study, only 58% of female and 48% of male middle and high school students washed their hands after using the bathroom. (American Journal of Infection Control, 1997)
• A study of Detroit school children showed that scheduled hand washing, at least four times a day, can reduce gastrointestinal illness and related absences by more than 50%. (Family Medicine, 1997)