Latino kids need Salud Heroes to help fight childhood obesity. Can you step up? Visit our new website, Salud America! Growing Healthy Change, to read stories about real-life Salud Heroes who are making healthy community changes—from improved marketing to increased access to healthy food and physical activity, etc.—for Latino kids in your neighborhood and across the nation. You can also upload your own Salud Hero stories and photos. Watch a video about the site and Salud Heroes...and be a Salud Hero today! The Growing Healthy Change website was created by Salud America!, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The ...
School Bites, a blog about bringing more healthy food into the school system, provides tips on having less junk food in the classroom on Valentines Day. Together the two healthy Valentine's Day posts include 27 unique ideas of how to incorporate healthier foods like fruits, vegetables, smoothies, and water into the classroom parties. There are also suggestions for active games to play during the day, like Musical Hearts or Valentine's Hopscotch. These activites can get kids moving, having fun, and thinking less about the sugary snacks that traditionally provided during classroom parties. These ideas are complied from her network of school-health blogs and ideas from other concerned parents. See the 2014 guide 12 Naturally Sweet Ideas for a Healthy School Valentine’s Day ...
In Brownsville, children ages 6-12 who do not own bikes can now borrow one thanks to the Bikes for Tikes Program! The organization received a grant to purchase 40 bikes to be lent out every third Saturday of the month. Saturday morning parents register their children and from 9-11am kids are free to ride along the newly built Belden Trail. Watch the video to the right to learn more about this ...
Neighborhoods in Los Angeles are getting more fresh food options, thanks to corner store makeovers that are sweeping the city. The most recent makeover took place in Boyle Heights at Salva Market. Salva Market will launch new healthy food options and take part in a neighbor meet & greet with Boyle Heights residents on Thursday February 6 In late February 2014 the store will have its official grand reopening as a Healthy Neighborhood Market, accompanied by nutritious cooking demonstrations. PALOMA, a healthy food and wellness team of young leaders coordinated by community-based organization LA CAUSA YouthBuild in Boyle Heights, has worked closely with store manager Abel Gonzalez for several months to bring fresh and healthy foods to Salva Market. The Department of ...
Supported by the Horizon Foundation, Howard County Unsweetened has tools, resources, news, and more on how parents and their kids can swap sugary drinks for healthier alternatives. Their latest video campaign suggests that big soda companies should focus on promoting healthier beverages, like water, and not high-sugar drinks. The campaign challenges folks to rethink what marketing beverages to children should look like. Check out their latest video here! Howard County Unsweetened hosted a contest inviting high-schoolers to submit short documentaries about the problem of sugary drink consumption, and creative new ways to deal with it. They announced the winner in February 2014---watch the ...
In Illinois, a state that many Latinos call home, there have been lots of efforts to make healthy community changes to reduce obesity in young people, including efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption. Governor Pat Quinn recently declared February 2014 as Rethink Your Drink Month encouraging Illinoisans to limit their sugary beverage consumption and choose healthier options. The Governor’s proclamation coincides with a wide array of educational events on the health effects of sugary beverage consumption and the benefits of healthier choices being hosted by health departments, schools, non-profits and after-school programs across the state as part of the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity’s Rethink Your Drink ...
Did you know that 10 minute activity breaks can help increase concentration in the classroom? Or that children who spend 20 minutes a day in greener areas get five times as much physical activity as those who did not? Well if you didn't, you can learn more about physical activity and places for activity from the Active Living Research (ALR) group. ALR has a wealth of evidence-based information and resources on how to make schools, communities, streets, and parks healthy and active places for all to enjoy! Knowing the facts, anybody can make the case for physical activity! So check out ALR's tools and resources and visit their home page. Learn more about policies that promote physical activity ...
Want to fight Latino childhood obesity, but don’t know where to start or how to make a change? Start at Salud America! Growing Healthy Change. The new website is a first-of-its-kind clearinghouse of Latino-focused resources and stories to promote changes—healthier marketing and improved access to healthy food and physical activity, etc.—for Latino kids in your neighborhood and across the nation. Right now at the site, you can: Input your address and create maps at the school, city, county, state, or national level to see what changes are growing for Latino kids, or search by topic (e.g., healthier school snacks, active spaces, sugary drinks);
Find resources to start a change;
Watch and read about real-life “Salud Heroes” of change; and
Become a “Salud ...
Biking and walking to nearby places can be a fun way to get around while meeting daily physical activity requirements. But not all streets are biker and pedestrian friendly---so what if you could provide input to city planners and engineers with the touch of a button about roads that need upgrades? Well soon this may be possible with the development of a new mobile app called Key to the Street. All one has to do is snap a picture of a place that needs improvements and then use the app's tools to draw the type of improvements one desires. According to this blog post from Key to the Street, the tool will also be accessible through the Key to Street website. Pilot testing will begin in Austin in Spring 2014. See the video below for a quick demo of how this tool will ...
