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Lisa

Articles by Lisa

Parents Lead the Way in Healthy School Lunches



Napa Valley Unified School District, (33.9% Latino) operates 32 schools within the district and now is working towards healthier and tastier school lunches as parents have come together to get the district to change what it offers for students lunches. The lunch reform movement started in recent years with a passionate group of parents that were wanting to make a change in the high levels of pre-diabetic students, and the fact that students were not enjoying the school lunches that were part of the national lunch program. Since then, members of the Napa City Council and the Napa County Board of Supervisors are supporting lunch reform and joined in participating in a recent Napa County annual Food Day celebration, to help focus on healthier school lunches. The celebration ...

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Grant Opportunity Applications Open Till December 15th!



Grants up to $90,000 are now available for those focused on helping kids grow up at a healthy weight through state, local and tribal public policy campaigns. Applicants can apply to the Voices for Healthy Kids grant by Thursday, December 15th, 2016 and applications must be specific to an individual campaign focused on changing public policy in one state, local or tribal geographic location and must align with one of the Voices for Healthy Kids policy priorities. To learn more, visit the Voices for Healthy Kids Policy Lever site and review the policy priorities, and submit applications via email to voicesforhealthykids@heart.org. The support for this grant is through the collaboration of The American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, working in ...

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Rethink Your Drink Campaign Bubbles Up in Local Hospital



Hoping to get people to reduce their consumption of sugary beverages in Alton, Illinois, The Alton Memorial Hospital is asking all staff and patients to "Rethink Your Drink". The "Rethink Your Drink" is a national campaign that is remarketed by communities, schools, organizations and cities to help educated consumers of the added sugars in all drinks. Nurse champions within the hospital are now who are working as part of the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity (IAPO) with the mission of the campaign to lead people to better health by drinking less sugary sweetened beverages like sodas and educate residents to cut back on drinks that have 12 grams (3 teaspoons) or more of sugar per 12 fluid ounces. An AMH parish nurse, Eileen Cheatham has taken the educational display and ...

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Fox Farm Plants Hope For Health in Southern California Elementary School



Within the Pasadena Unified School District (53.6% Latino students), students at Altadena's Franklin Elementary School celebrate their first harvest from their school garden, Fox Farm. According to Pasadena Now, Franklin Elementary School is considered one of the most underserved elementary schools in the District (72% Latino), where more than 40% are English learners, more than 80% of the students participate in free and reduce price lunch and are living in what is considered a "food desert", where healthy food is distant and junk food is plentiful. Unfortunately, studies show, Latino students often live in food deserts, see more junk food ads than their peers, and have less access to salad and fruit bars in their schools. However, now Franklin Elementary is enjoying the ...

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Implementing The Soda Tax in Philly



Now that the city has approved a 1.5-cent-per-ounce soda tax and Mayor Kenny signed the bill in June the process to implement the tax is being revealed. According to NBC Philadelphia, city leaders unveiled a new website to help dealers and distributors understand how they may be impacted by the tax and to learn more about how the taxes work, registration will be available for all distributors online in November. If taxes are not paid on time, distributors can contact the Philadelphia Department of Revenue to discuss payment arrangements. The tax is scheduled to go into effect starting January 1, 2017, and taxes are due each month for the prior month's sales beginning February 20th, 2017. The estimated 90 million to be raised in funds are planned to be used for expanding ...

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Update on Santa Fe Soda Tax Proposal



After many cities, including Cook County, Ill. have passed a sugary beverage tax, other cities are introducing the idea to their city council. Recently, Mayors Javier Gonzales proposed a tax sugary beverages as an "active way" to help fund and support early childhood education initiatives. However, according to the local Local News Santa Fe, New Mexican, the City Council has requested more information. The council is wary of the tax plan, where the Council's Finance Committee was concerned on how the public would just change their buy habits. The Council also  commented on how the city's finances remain fragile, and how they do not see how the tax would generate the projected goal to collect around $10million a year for municipal grants to help fund pre-K programs. However, ...

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A Way For Grocers To Sell Healthy Produce Without Increasing Shopper Budgets



How can shoppers be more influenced to buy more fruits and vegetables and stores still benefit economically? A study from researchers at three universities explains that all a store needs are a bit of creative public health focused marketing materials. The study proved that public health and economic sustainability can work together to help stores and shoppers alike through healthy marketing practices. Providing easy-to-understand placards that are placed in the shoppers' basket within the shopping cart, bilingual messages were used in shopping carts for shoppers in El Paso and Southern New Mexico to see and be encouraged to buy popular cultural fruits and vegetables. The message on the eight by eleven-inch placards was provided to encourage shoppers that most people in the ...

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Studies Show Sugary Drinks Are Bad For Sleep, Pre-diabetes & Diabetes



Sodas, although not as popular in the United States as before are still consumed daily at high levels in many communities, especially in minority communities. In fact, studies show Latino teens kids have increased their consumption of sugary drinks such as soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit-flavored drinks and flavored milk between 1991 and 2008. Unfortunately, regular consumers of sugary beverages have a 26% higher risk of type 2 diabetes and now a current study from Tufts University reveals that consumers who drink around six 12-ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages a week have a 46% increased risk of developing pre-diabetes, not including other factors. The information for the Tufts study looked at over 14 years of data of nearly 1,600 middle-aged adults and was obtained from the ...

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A Policy And Education Campaign Leads To 20% Decrease in Soda Purchases!



The Horizon Foundation worked together with local community groups including the local health department, People Acting Together in Howard (a faith community organization) and the African American Community Roundtable to create a multi-faceted policy change campaign in Howard County Maryland (6.5% Latino) to help reduce the high consumption and purchases of sugary drinks by consumers. The campaign called, “Howard County Unsweetened”, worked to pass public policy measures that increased the public’s awareness about the dangers of consuming sugary drinks. Sugary drinks have been linked to various health risks including higher risks of diabetes, heart attacks, tooth decay, and obesity. However, many people still include sugary drinks in their diets, in the forms of sweet teas, coffee ...

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