With over 10 million children attending afterschool programming, afterschool care providers can play an important role when it comes to expanding healthy eating and active living opportunities for children. An October 2014 report produced by the Afterschool Alliance highlights the latest research on how parents feel about the quality of afterschool care their children receive. For the survey, 13,709 households with children, throughout the U.S., answered an in-depth on-line survey. Key findings from report include: 80% of parents believed that afterschool programs should help children be active (82% of African American and Latino parents believed programs should help children be active)
70% of parents believed that afterschool programs should provide children with healthy ...
Faith based organizations (FBOs) are uniquely positioned to expand their congregation's opportunities for learning about & leading a healthy lifestyle. However, according to a recent study conducted among 844 faith leaders throughout the U.S., over 77% of clergy members were overweight or obese. While certain barriers such as a lack of medical insurance, fear, language, embarrassment, and beliefs in fatalism might contribute to the poor health of some church members, faith based organizations have the opportunity to step in to offer services to those that they might not otherwise have access to. Faith-based leaders can counteract unhealthy lifestyles by providing accurate health information, addressing cultural beliefs about health and addressing behaviors which ...
Rebecca Adeigbe grew up in South Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley, a mostly Latino area that often lacks basic infrastructure—like streets and running water—and also is short on doctors and public health services. Adeigbe now works to improve health in this region and beyond. Adeigbe, a researcher at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio (the team behind SaludToday), empowers people to take control of their health, and emboldens others to focus on health research and changes. “I’ve been increasingly attuned to high poverty and disease rates—and I enjoy working hard to make a real difference in improving health and quality of life,” Adeigbe said. Adeigbe got her big break into public health in 2010. As ...
Unhealthy diets can contribute to obesity. But many underserved areas, including Latino neighborhoods, have more fast-food restaurants than they have grocery stores and farmers’ markets, which can offer affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain products, low-fat milk, and other healthy options. Let’s use #SaludTues on March 17, 2015, to tweet and discuss strategies on how to bring families closer to grocery stores and healthy foods in their neighborhoods: WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “How to Get Closer to My Grocer”
DATE: Tuesday, March 17, 2015
TIME: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT)
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludToday
CO-HOSTS: The American Heart Association Voices for Healthy Kids Texas Campaign Team (@YoureTheCureTX), The Food ...
Health advocates in Maryland are working hard to get healthier beverages into the hands of residents, especially children. Early this year, a bill was introduced that would remove the sales tax on bottled water. Another bill is hoping to make beverages healthier for kids at restaurants. This bill would require restaurants that offer children’s menus to serve only water, low-fat milk or 100% juice as part of the bundled kids’ meal price—though parents would still be able to choose another option if they’d prefer. According to a newsletter from Prevent Obesity, a poll from OpinionWorks shows that nearly 70 percent of Marylanders (and 75 percent of Maryland parents) support legislation that limits the types of default beverages offered with kids meals to only healthy ...
Latino kids need safe, easy-to-get-to places to play. That’s why Salud America! is presenting six new #SaludHeroes who helped give Latino kids new and improved places to run, jump, play and bike! WATCH and VOTE for your favorite “#SaludHeroes of Active Spaces” by March 25, 2015, and be entered in a random drawing to win a FREE T-shirt and jump rope! #SaludHeroes of Active Spaces are: Run, Chicago, Run. Alicia Gonzalez, a big-hearted Latina, wanted to get Latino kids active—so she got more than 13,000 kids moving as part of Chicago Run.
Moms Heart Parks. Irma Rivera and other moms, sick of having no safe places for their kids to play, helped land the first public park and community center in San Ana, Calif.
Stickball in NYC. Two Latinos worked together to fight ...
Latinos and blacks are more likely to pick up a cigarette-smoking habit during their 20s, according to a new study, Science Daily reports. The study, published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, looked at longitudinal data and found that, at age 18-and-a-half, 44% of whites, 27% of Latinos, and 18% of blacks smoked cigarettes. By age 29, the trend rose in Latinos and blacks (30% and 31%) and dropped in whites (40%). Study researchers said the findings can help guide interventions targeted to reduce cigarette smoking "at the right ages for the right socio-demographic groups," said Rebecca J. Evans-Polce, postdoctoral fellow at the Bennett Pierce Prevention Center. "In order to better understand why these disparities in substance use behavior exist, we need to look at how risk ...
Over 1,000 kids (including many Latinos) will be running in the New York Road Runners' (NYRR) first-ever Times Square Kids Run! The free event which is part of the NYRR's Five-Borough Series is set to kick-off on Sunday March 15, 2015 alongside the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon.
Events like these are especially important for Latino kids who are often faced with multiple barriers to physical activity.
For kids at one school, PS 159 in the Bronx, programs like the NYRR's young runners program provide them with the opportunity to be physically active on a regular basis. At PS 159, teacher Sally Bojorquez leads the running team in morning runs on a weekly basis. For some of the students running in the race, this will be their first time leaving the Bronx. Starting at ...
A House bill aimed at increasing daily physical activity among elementary school students was introduced to the Maryland legislature, Feb. 4, 2015. If enacted, elementary school students would receive a total of 150 minutes per week of physical activity, with a minimum of 90 minutes devoted to physical education (PE). According to the bill, the remaining minutes should consist of "developmentally appropriate moderate-to-vigorous," activities such as recess. Additionally, the bill would require that all public elementary schools develop a physical activity leadership team who would oversee the planning of activities that would increase the quality and quantity of physical activity.The state board would be responsible for adopting regulations that would facilitate the implementation ...
