The Summer Nutrition Programs ensure that low-income children have access to healthy food throughout the summer. Most Summer Nutrition Programs occur in tandem with educational and enrichment programs that keep children learning, engaged, and safe during the summer months. The Summer Meals Act hopes to have a better integration of summer education and meals in programs that provide summer enrichment, as well as improve nutrition in rural, under-served, hard to reach areas throughout the US. You can find out more information on the legislation ...
Cincinnati.com reports that lunch at Fort Thomas Independent Schools will, like most schools throughout the nation, be changing their menu offerings year. However their changes will be quite different than most, since they will no longer be part of federal lunch program. The Campbell County, Ky., district is opting out of the federal school lunch program, forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding. Their reason: Kids didn't like the lunches. "The calorie limitations and types of foods that have to be provided ... have resulted in the kids just saying 'I'm not going to eat that,' " said Fort Thomas Superintendent Gene Kirchner. The 2,800-student district is one of several districts around the US that are dropping the lunch program. Most of these being ...
The Tennessee State Department of Transportation (TDOT) became the sixth state and the first in the south to adopt the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) Urban Street Design Guide, in June of 2014. According to a Streetsblog NYC article, NACTO's Guide is the gold standard for Urban Street Design. The Urban Street Design Guide encourages healthy living by highlighting alternative transportation modes. It provides guidance on best practices for designing: streets
intersections
street design elements
intersection design elements
interim design strategies
design controls Because Tennessee has a growing Latino population, Latino children living here will hopefully see the result of streets designed with health in mind. Other states who ...
The tri-city area of Bloomington, Edina, and Richfield has a growing Latino population and a desire to see all three cities become healthier and happier. Bloomington Public Health established the Tri-City Partners for Healthy Communities to be the leadership team for efforts to support better health in the region. Tri-City Partners for Healthy Communities recently announced they are awarding grants for efforts that increase healthy food access in the three cities. Community groups, organizations or collaborations in Bloomington, Edina or Richfield are eligible to apply. Three to six projects will receive grants up to $2,500. Projects that increase healthy food access might include ones that make healthy foods easier to obtain or lower in price. The projects may be new or existing, ...
U.S. Hispanic men and women now have a 50% chance of developing type 2 diabetes in their lifetime, according to a new federal study, Medical News Today reports. The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, examined years of diabetes incidence and death rates. Overall, researchers found that, for an average 20-year-old American, the lifetime risk of developing type 2 diabetes increased from 20% in 1985-89 to 40% in 2000-11 for men, and from 27% to 39% for women. In addition to Hispanics' higher risk, black women also had a 50% lifetime risk of diabetes. But while risk increased, years of life lost to diabetes decreased. "As the number of diabetes cases continue to increase and patients live longer, there will be a growing demand for health services and ...
Residents living in the diverse community of Lonsdale in Knoxville, Tennessee, now have a safe place to walk and play thanks to the Knox County Health Department and local community organizations. On July 26, 2014, partners including Lonsdale United For Change, a Latino Task Force of Lonsdale Volunteers, the Knox County Health Department and the Grace Baptist Church, hosted a celebratory event to inaugurate the new one-mile path, which connects Lonsdale Elementary, Lonsdale Park, Sam E. Hill School, and a few other nearby playgrounds. According to a November 2013, Knoxville Neighborhood Advisory news bulletin community members painted the new L-shaped path, in order to promote walking and better health in the community. The news bulletin says that walking feet along with a ...
The science that links excess sugary drink consumption and obesity is clear, especially for Latino kids. As the summer seasons draws to a close, have you and your kids been hydrating with healthy drinks? There is still time to make healthy changes before school starts! PreventObesity, an online national network of people dedicated to reducing childhood obesity, is currently running a campaign to ask folks to pledge to cut out sugary drinks this summer. They ask: What will you do to give your community a sweeter summer with fewer sugary drinks? Some individuals have already committed to: - Ask community leaders to improve water quality in parks and schools.
-Serve or bring no-sugar drinks to the next community event.
- Ask a local business to offer more healthy drink ...
U.S. immigration may result in increased smoking in Latinos and Asians, according to a new study reported by Science World Report. The study, led by Rice University, found that Latino immigrant men’s smoking prevalence was more than twice that of women’s (29.5 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively). Smoking prevalence among Asian immigrant men was more than four times that of Asian immigrant women (30.4 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively). For smoking frequency, Asian men on average smoked 2.5 more cigarettes per day than Asian women, compared with 1.5 more cigarettes per day that Latino men smoked than Latino women. The study also found that smoking increases with duration of U.S. residence among Asian immigrants (both prevalence and frequency) and among Latino immigrants ...
An old freeway/bridge located near the nation's capital will soon be transformed into Washington D.C.'s first elevated park. Once complete, the park will connect Capital Hill to the city's Anacostia neighborhood and offer visitors a safe place to play and be healthy. The Washington Post reports that four design teams will have the opportunity to submit drawings of the proposed park by September 2014. If all goes as planned, the 11th Street Recreation Bridge project should be complete by 2018. According to the official 11th Street Bridge project website, 76,000 residents who live within two miles of the bridge will reap the benefits of this $35 million private project, which is the result of a collaboration between non-profit Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC, the ...
