More than 23,000 people across the nation recently wrote letters to urge the Kellogg Co. to stop marketing sugary foods to Latino families on their Dias Grandiosos website. The letters, which highlighted how Kellogg’s targets Latina moms with cultural- and family-oriented messages for meals that are high in sugar and salt, were collected by Salud America!, a Latino obesity research network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Salud America! leaders delivered the 23,000 letters to Kellogg’s this week. We will post their response here in coming days. Why is this effort so important? Food and beverage marketing influences Latino kids’ ...
Alicia Gonzalez wanted kids to run—a desire that turned into Chicago Run, an group that has gotten more than 16,000 kids moving. Now she's won the Salud America! #SaludHeroes voting contest! Read Gonzalez's story or watch her winning video about how she identified the problem of unfit kids, planned for and mobilized change, and took actions that are helping Latino kids stay fit across Chicago through daily running activities, online mileage trackers, incentives and citywide running events. "I think the excited part of watching Chicago Run over the past six-and-a-half years is that it's really started to engage our communities," Gonzalez said. "It's very simple, easily replicated, and it's not intimidating. "A lot of our kids are coming home and they're feeling better ...
Companies spend over $150 million a year marketing mostly junk food to kids in schools. Thorough corporate sponsorships, posters/signs, vending machines, ads on buses and scoreboards, these companies constantly target Latino kids and minority youth. However, it doesn't have to be this way. Parents can take a stand again junk food ads by using new Growing Healthy Change marketing resources and tips from the new Voices For Healthy Kids "Don’t Sell Us Short" healthier food marketing toolkit. Access the toolkit ...
A coalition of over 25 local organizations and community advocates in the state of Iowa are celebrating a recent victory in shared-use policy. On March 23, 2015, the Iowa state legislature passed a bill which removes the burden of liability concerns from schools and community organizations, allowing them keep schoolyards open during non-school hours. Now the bill awaits signature from the state's governor Terry Branstad. Schoolyards are a widely untapped resource which can be used to provide communities with additional greenspace. When school playgrounds are left open to the community, research shows that 84% of kids are more likely to be physically active outside; yet in many communities school playgrounds are locked during non-school hours. Additional studies show that ...
Calling all researchers focused on Latino health! You're invited to a professional development workshop June 28-30, 2015, that will help Latino health scholars strengthen their skills in analyzing and studying public health datasets to contribute to the understanding of Latino and other underserved populations. Abstracts for oral and poster presentations at the workshop are being accepted through April 19, 2015, from junior faculty, residents, graduate students, doctoral students, post-doctoral students, and other researchers. The workshop is sponsored and hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, ...
On April 1st, an expansion of Minneapolis' staple food ordinance went into effect, requiring food stores to carry a minimum quantity of certain foods, including healthy foods. This ordinance has to potential to increase healthy food access in many communities, but some smaller store owners might need some extra help. Appetite for Change, a non-profit that uses food to create social change, is working with the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support on its effort to get more produce into the city's corner stores. Leaders from both Appetite for Change and the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support spoke with a local news station about exactly how they hope to make corner stores in the city places that carry healthy, delicious food. Listen to the news ...
A new documentary, Bite Size is sure to shed light on some of the issues that so many children and families in the U.S. today face as a result of childhood obesity. The film takes us into the lives of four children including 11-year old Moises "Moy" Gutierrez, 13 year old Keanna, 13 year old Emily, and 12 year old Davion and the day to day challenges they face such as dealing with bullies, social stigma, and diabetes as a result of their weight status. According to an article about the movie, the film's producer Eric Gallegos grew up with a type 2 diabetic father himself, that's why he joined forces with director Corbin Billings to raise awareness of the challenges that kids, parents, teachers, schools and communities face from living in an environment laden with junk food ...
A new documentary, Bite Size is sure to shed light on some of the issues that so many children and families in the U.S. today face as a result of childhood obesity. The film takes us into the lives of four children including 11-year old Moises "Moy" Gutierrez, 13 year old Keanna, 13 year old Emily, and 12 year old Davion and the day to day challenges they face such as dealing with bullies, social stigma, and diabetes as a result of their weight status. According to an article about the movie, the film's producer Eric Gallegos grew up with a type 2 diabetic father himself, that's why he joined forces with director Corbin Billings to raise awareness of the challenges that kids, parents, teachers, schools and communities face from living in an environment laden with junk food ...
About six-in-ten U.S. adult Latinos, or 62%, speak English or are bilingual, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center data. Among U.S.-born Latinos, the vast majority of the second generation speaks English (42%) or is bilingual (50%). By the third generation the percentage of English increases (76%) and bilingual decreases (23%). Foreign-born Latinos are the least likely to speak English (5%), but many are bilingual (35%). What do these data say? It means that, although Latino adults said Latino immigrants need to speak English to succeed while still valuing the ability to speak Spanish, the future of language use in the U.S. is increasingly English and bilingual, according to a Pew report. "And as a sign of the times, Spanglish, an informal hybrid of both ...
