El Paso, Texas has come a long way since ranked as the third-fattest U.S. city in 2012. A renewed focus on eating healthy and moving more is paying off; obesity rates in the area are dropping. In addition to local health departments and community organizations, schools are playing a big role in these changes by addressing health, culture and community all at once. At Bowie High School, with the help of teacher Ana Suffle, students are getting exposed not only to gardening, nutrition education and business skills, they are reconnecting with cultural traditions that favor fresh and flavorful over processed and sugary.
The Lack of Healthy Food in Schools
Awareness/Learn: The city of El Paso, Texas, shares its border with Mexico. This creates an interesting dynamic where some ...
From PowerPoint presentations to outlines to thick textbooks, there are many ways students learn about the world while at school. Rarely do they get the chance to learn by actually solving real-world problems—let alone problems that directly affect their lives. Learn how Rick Treviño, a high school teacher in San Antonio, Texas, merged academics with activism and rallied his students to bring healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables into their neighborhood.
The Lack of Healthy Food in the Community
Awareness: While listening to the radio one day, San Antonio resident and high school teacher Rick Treviño got an idea. He was listening to a news story about how a group in Michigan started a Double Up Food Bucks program at local farmers’ market as a way to allow low-income ...
Public schools in Nevada serving families may soon be required to offer healthy breakfast to students who might not otherwise eat a morning meal. The bill, Senate Bill 503, would require free breakfast for all students in schools where 70 percent of students or more are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. State officials say 103 elementary schools now serve breakfast, but the bill could add another 120 to the ...
In a new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, a team of researchers led by the University of Surrey, has found that front of package nutrition labels can enable consumers to make healthier food choices. "Front of package food labeling is an important tool in helping consumers to make healthier choices and to encourage the industry to provide healthier foods," said Professor Monique Raats from the University of Surrey who led the research. Read more ...
One word can describe Taco Bell’s drink lineup: Sugary. Taco Bell recently added six new sugary drinks and became the first fast-food giant to offer Manzanita Sol, an apple-flavored soda most popular in Mexico, a nod to it menus. Manzanita Sol packs a whopping 56 grams of sugar in a 16-ounce drink, and four of the six new drinks contain more than 20 grams of sugar in the chain’s smallest available size. Tell Taco Bell to stop offering Manzanita Sol and other sugary drinks to customers! Kids don’t need more sugar-bombs disguised as thirst-quenchers, they already drink many sugary drinks, pushing up their risk for obesity and diabetes. Taco Bell continues to launch new unhealthy beverages, including new flavors of sugar-filled slushy drinks called Freezes. The company ...
In a part of Kansas that struggled with obesity, one coalition stepped up to find new ways to help the local community make healthier food choices. How’d they try to do it? They started to change the local food environment by increasing the availability and marketing of healthy foods in local stores—and it worked.
The Need for Healthy Community Food
Awareness: Wyandotte County, Kan., which is 27.1% Hispanic and is home to Kansas City, had a growing problem of obesity, with 41% of school children listed as overweight or obese. Officials with the Latino Health for All Coalition were increasingly aware that many residents shop at corner stores or small grocery stores, which do not always offer fresh produce or a variety of healthy options. Rather, junk food and drinks are the ...
For Alcohol Awareness Month (April), let’s use #SaludTues on April 14, 2015, to tweet information, resources, and tips that can help reduce alcohol abuse: WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Alcohol Awareness”
DATE: Tuesday, April 14, 2015
TIME: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT)
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (@NCADDnational), Institute for Research, Education, and Training in Addiction (@IRETApgh) Be sure to use the hashtag #SaludTues to follow the conversation on Twitter/X and share your stories and resources. #SaludTues is a Tweetchat on Twitter/X that focuses on a variety of different health issues. From September 2014 to March 2021, #SaludTues occurred weekly at noon CST ...
More than 23,000 people across the nation recently wrote letters to urge the Kellogg Co. to stop marketing sugary foods to families on their Dias Grandiosos website. The letters, which highlighted how Kellogg’s targets Spanish-speaking moms with family-oriented messages for meals that are high in sugar and salt, were collected by Salud America!, an obesity research and communication network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Salud America! leaders delivered the 23,000 letters to Kellogg’s this week. We will post their response here in coming days. Why is this effort so important? Food and beverage marketing influences kids’ diets and disproportionately focuses on unhealthy products, studies show. We believe families need healthy food options—rather ...
In the Fairfax County Public School District in Fairfax, Va., a parent group called Real Food for Kids had rid school cafeterias of highly processed junk foods and improved the nutrition of school snacks and menus. But the change was not very visible to students. So the group, led by parent JoAnne Hammermaster, helped bring a fresh food stations showcase the healthier selections—and add new ones—for students at district schools.
The Need for Healthy School Food
Awareness: Childhood obesity is a priority for the parent group Real Food for Kids (RFFK), which pushes for healthy changes in the Fairfax County Public School District (FCPSD), a 22% Latino district in Fairfax, Va. In 2012, for example, RFFK drove FCPSD leaders to remove foods with artificial dyes, additives, and ...
