The Let's Move! Active Schools national initiative encourages schools to help children get at least 60 minutes of physical activity throughout the day. First lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of Let's Move! Active Schools in Chicago on February 28, 2013 and already schools in Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, have been recognized for providing their students with the opportunity to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. According to the Let's Move Active Schools Campaign an active school is one that seeks to increase opportunities for: physical education;
physical activity during school;
physical activity before and after school;
staff involvement; and
family and community engagement. Let's Move! Active Schools will leverage opportunities offered through ...
More local corner stores are committing to the Mass in Motion Healthy Corner Store Program, an initiative of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Convenience stores tend to lack fresh, healthy, affordable food and drink options. Many people are looking for healthy options when they’re on the go. When residents can easily access healthy foods, they are more likely to choose healthy options. The Mass in Motion Healthy Corner Store Program works with local convenience store owners to make healthy food and drink options more readily available. By promoting healthy options, the local markets are helping to make healthy choices easier for customers in Melrose and Wakefield. Participation is easy, and in many cases, stores simply have to reorganize and feature healthy foods they ...
Supermarkets and pharmacies are well-positioned in their communities to encourage folks to make healthier food and drink choices. However, some stores continue to promote sugary drinks over healthier options, like water. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) along with other advocacy groups and health professionals are calling on store owners to rethink how they market sugary drinks and to consider giving no and low calorie drink options more prominent shelf space. Little decisions like placing a case of bottled water at the check out line instead of soda is a small but effective way for a store owner to promote better beverage choices in the community. CSPI and others have crafted letters to send to large supermarket and pharmacy stores urging them to consider making ...
Healthy Kids Choice is a Healthy Shasta initiative to partner with restaurants in Shasta County to offer and promote healthy options for children. The goals of the Healthy Kids Choice program are to have healthy options available on kids' menus, to encourage children to eat more fruits and vegetables, to decrease children's fat and sugar intake, to spotlight and promote healthier options for kids, and to assist restaurants in making the healthy choice appealing, available and affordable. Live in Shasta County? Are any of these restaurants in your area? Have you asked restaurants in your area what they are doing to help the community ...
Farmers' markets around the country have tougher rules and regulations than your average supermarket. While these rules are intended to protect customers from unsafe food, sometimes the rules limit what a farmer can sell and how they can sell it, making it harder on the farmer to make money and harder for the customer to get fresh, healthy produce. A Texas bill signed into law in June 2013 hopes to relax some of these rules. H.B. 1382, introduced by Rep. David Simpson (R- Longview) relaxes some existing regulations and fees making it easier for sellers at farmers’ markets to provide cooking demonstrations and food samples to patrons. More samples and cooking demos means more folks are able to learn how they can use fresh, healthy produce to enhance their family's ...
In Tucson, 12 schools opened their school grounds as a result of a shared use (joint-use) agreements between the city and the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). Before, access to play space was limited and only 6.2 acres of park space was available to every 1,000 residents. Although members from the community were forbidden to use school fields and playgrounds, some would nonetheless climb fences to use the facilities. Advocates from the community soon turned to their elected officials to see if they could resolve the matter. This success story from KaBoom!, Tucson, Arizona: Sharing Play Space and Responsibility talks about how Tucson's rapid population growth led to a deficit in park space. When Rodney Glassman ran for city councilman, he promised his constituents that he would work ...
Leaders from homeowner associations (HOA) across the small community of Greenbelt, Maryland, realized that shared use agreements for the use of playgrounds, between the city and HOAs, could be mutually beneficial to both parties. In order to help increase property values and provide more play space for kids, the HOAs formed a coalition and sought to establish shared (joint) use agreements between the city and the newly formed coalition. According to the KaBoom! story, Greenbelt, Maryland: Joint-Use Agreements with Homeowners Associations, Greenbelt, was originally developed as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. It was designed to be a complete city with schools, businesses, and places for recreation. By the 1950s, the community was ...
A shared use agreement (joint-use agreement) at Chula Vista High School allows over 1,000 children to use the school's soccer field during after school hours. The partnership between a local soccer league and the school, has brought an affordable means of promoting physical activity, among the community's children. On weekdays children who participate in the soccer league use the field after 4pm, when after-school activities are over. During weekends, the league hosts games on the field, and residents from the community come out to walk along the field. In exchange for being given permission to use the school's field, the soccer league agreed to maintain it. As a result, the agreement has been beneficial to the both parties involved and more importantly, children are given the ...
Since 2008, students enrolled in Texas Public Schools have had their fitness levels assessed using FitnessGram--a tool that provides useful information to parents, teachers, and administrators and helps inform decisions about physical education and physical activity requirements for students. FitnessGram is an annual fitness test that yields a fitness report card, with information about a student's aerobic capacity, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. It can help decision makers decide what type of physical activity programs are needed and where funding for programs should be allocated. Lauren Dimitry of Texans Care for Children speaks on why it is important to keep FitnessGram in Texas ...
