Marin City is one of the most diverse communities in California, with more than half the population being either African American, Hispanic, or Asian. Latinos who live in the small community make up about 10% overall, and are about to have more choice when it comes to snacks. The Marin City Community Services District has voted to adopt a new policy to restrict junk food sold at vending machines on its property and at events that the district oversees. The policy officially goes into place in February. The new policy — approved by the Community Services District board — is similar to the U.S. Department of Agriculture food and beverage regulations that call for more whole grains, low-fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, leaner protein, and less fat, sugar, and sodium. Read more ...
According to a Fox-11 report, Rep. Chad Weininger (R-Allouez) has drafted a bill that would require elementary students in Wisconsin to participate in at least 30 minutes if daily physical education. The bill called the Get Youth Moving (Gym) Act and would boost students' PE requirements from three days a week to five days a week. According to this report local health organizations and the Wisconsin Parent Teachers Association are in support of this bill. The bill is scheduled to be introduced to the House of Representatives in early ...
This Fall 2013 volume of Our Children, a magazine put out by The National PTA, features important stories related to student health. In this issue parents, teachers and educators can read about the Fire Up Your Feet campaign, what schools are doing to promote Healthy Lifestyles month, what PTAs can do to keep recess in schools, and also about the Fuel Up to Play 60 initiative. One story featured in this magazine, Walk This Way, speaks of the Fire Up Your Feet campaign and how a school in Bloomington, MN has enabled and encouraged students to get healthy by walking to school. Every Fall and Spring semester at Olsen elementary school, Principal Paul Meyer encourages students to participate in Fire Up Your Feet, a national initiative aimed at getting kids to move before, during and ...
Rainer Valley is one of Seattle's most diverse neighborhoods. In 2012, residents of this community joined efforts to help make the streets of Seattle more walkable and bikeable by planning for greenways in their neighborhood. Greenways---paths that provide infrastructure to encourage walking and biking in residential neighborhoods---are one way to create healthy streets. Recently, members of the Rainier Valley Greenways Builds Coalition for Safe Healthy Streets (Rainer Valley Greenways) have begun planning and reaching out to neighbors, to hear what they have to say about street improvements. Members of the coalition mapped out significant places in the community like schools and parks, and drafted a Greenways timeline. To view the map, timeline, and other documents related to the ...
Members of the Joint Use Task Force in California, discuss the meaning and benefit of joint use (shared use) agreements. The joint use statewide task force (JUST) was established in May 2008. The organization is comprised of organizations representing health, civil rights, community collaboratives, planners, local elected and appointed officials, park and recreation officials, school board administrators, academic researchers, and a growing list of groups interested in ensuring that all children have a safe place to play and be active within easy reach. Learn more by watching the Joint Use Explained Videos below, available both in English and ...
Since 1991, BikeTexas has been the unified voice for cyclists across Texas. BikeTexas is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance bicycle access, safety, and education for all Texans. Members of this organization continue to seek safe roads for cyclists and policies to protect the rights of bikers and pedestrians alike. Check out the many resources that Bike Texas has to offer like their Safe Cyclist curriculum, their Safe Routes to School Event Manual, and read about the BikeTexas Kids Kup, which encourages kids to become more involved with ...
Leon Sanchez, a Chicago high-school student inspired by his dying grandmother to cook, recently won the Cooking Up Change contest that challenges students to develop healthy school lunch meals that meet federal nutrition standards, according to a new video by the Kids’ Safe & Healthful Foods (KSHF) Project, and a blog post by PreventObesity.net that feature Sanchez. Sanchez and his teammates won the contest for Mexican-food-inspired dishes, including chicken rancheros and tropical de fruta. The recipes have had a great impact on children's health. “I wanted to make my grandmother proud, and make everyone who knows me proud,” Sanchez said in the video. “We are actually helping kids live a longer life.” Learn more about Cooking Up Change ...
Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs across the nation are providing children the opportunity to participate in physical activity, by walking to school, while also reducing vehicular emissions, and relieving cities of traffic congestion. The SRTS program was originally introduced as a Federal-Aid program of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) created by Section 1404 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users Act (SAFETEA-LU) in 2005. With the passage of MAP-21, as of October 2012, federal funds specifically appropriated towards the SRTS program were no longer available to states. Despite this change in federal law, states can still develop SRTS programs and seek support from the MAP-21's new ...
After Governor Perry vetoed state legislation which would have passed a statewide Safe Passing ordinance, in 2009, the city of Austin enacted their own citywide Safe Passing Ordinance to encourage active transportation and to protect vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists, children, and the elderly. The law also protects people on horseback, motorcycles, mopeds, and motor-assisted scooters. According to BikeTexas, the language of the Austin ordinance contains the same language used for the statewide Safe Passing ordinance. It requires motorists to keep a distance of 3-6 feet from those defined as vulnerable road users (VRU). If a VRU is using a street lane and more than one lane for driving is available, motorists are required to vacate the lane. Read this letter of ...
