Health, happiness, and success: So goes the oft-repeated answer to the question, “What do we want for our kids?” The thing is, it’s very difficult to achieve the last two without the first.

As we’ve discussed before, the quality of a child’s physical and mental health has been proven to affect their cognitive abilities and perfomance in school. Over 12 million children in the U.S. are undernourished, and nearly 14 million are obese, yet many schools are still slow to prioritize physical health.

Our work goes deeper than just improving kids’ nutrition and physical activity; those are two crucial pieces of the health of the whole child—which includes their safety, mental health, social-emotional well-being, and more—that contribute to a more successful learning environment.

The best way to make sure schools are making our kids’ health a priority is to illustrate the connection between health and learning (or, as we call it, The Learning Connection). Whether you’re a parent, educator, or school professional, you can spread the word about The Learning Connection.

Download this useful one-pager with facts about how things like healthy school meals, PE participation, and more improve memory, focus, absenteeism, grades, and college attainment. You can also share the below infographic on social media. Then take the next step and visit Game On for hundreds of ways your school can incorporate more physical activity, healthy eating, and wellness behaviors into the school day.

Health, happiness, and success. Every child deserves the opportunity to attain these things, but it’s going to take change—both local and widescale—to get there. Are you in?