Team Nutrition, through the USDA, provides a guide called Dig In! for those looking to engage 5th and 6th grade students in gardening, and the nutritional and educational experiences that go with it! They provide lessons, handouts, and posters. For teachers they provide a guide that discusses how to feature different items of produce in fun educational lessons that teach food safety, have tasting activities, teach food preparation, and gardening techniques. The resources created by Team Nutrition are made to be fun lessons, that give students hands on experience with new foods and teach them how to create sustainable gardens so that they may use this knowledge throughout their lives. ...
One Hispanic community in East Austin has been making healthy changes not only at home, but in their neighborhood as well. Manantial de Salud -- the Dove Springs Health Network -- is dedicated to promoting well-being in the Dove Springs community of Austin, through healthy lifestyles and positive environments. They have community-wide campaigns targeted at eliminating sugary drinks and getting more active. This summer, Manatial de Salud and its partners at GO! Austin / VAMOS! Austin (GAVA) in Dove Springs, the Sustainable Food Center, Urban Roots, and Austin Parks and Recreation Department are coming together to host a neighborhood food stand. The Neighborhood Farm Stand will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00p.m. every Wednesday beginning June 5 through July 17 at the Dove ...
An ad campaign created as a collaborative effort of First 5 Contra Costa and Healthy and Active Before 5, depicts soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages with sharp, scary teeth. Sugar Bites is a social marketing campaign that aims to encourage parents to provide their children with healthier beverages. The ads are featured in both English and Spanish, in order to reach as many people as possible. Advertisements like these can help educate people and use the same tactics large corporations use to advertise unhealthy drinks and snacks. It is hoped that these memorable ads will stick with people, to lower the amount of soda intake in Contra Costa, Ca., which currently greatly affects the amount of tooth decay, obesity, and type II diabetes in children. Sugar Bites was posted ...
When city planners and public health officials work together great things can happen for a community. Take for instance the community of Kettleman city, in King's County. In 2005, specialists from both fields gathered for four lunchtime roundtables where health, the built environment, and smart growth codes were discussed. Soon the team met with community residents who expressed their greatest health and safety concerns, which included: a pedestrian crossing along Highway 41 used by children who walk to school, and lack of fresh produce in their community. With the help of the planning team, residents in Kettleman were able to get a $140,000 Cal Trans Environmental Justice Grant to determine what safety measures should be added to the crossway. Public health officials were also able to ...
The Sonoma County Healthy and Sustainable Food Action Plan (Action Plan) is a collaborative effort between the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, the Sonoma County Food System Alliance and community stakeholders provides a county-wide framework to stimulate and coordinate improvements within our food system. The Action Plan encourages local governments, businesses, organizations and individuals to commit to specific actions so they can play a role in building a viable food system for Sonoma County that assists efforts to reduce childhood obesity. Highlights of the plan include support for policies that increase point-of-sale acceptance of CalFresh and WIC at farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms, and neighborhood stores, develop tax and zoning ...
There is a bill now in front of the House Education Committee that will eliminate certain foods that are considered "junk foods" from lunch rooms and vending machines in South Carolina. The bill would also allow for only water, 100% fruit juice, and fat-free or low-fat milk to be offered in schools. Changing regulations would require the snacks served in the lunch room or in vending machines must not have more than 200 calories, 35% of total calories from fat, 35% of their total weight composed of sugar, or 10% of their total calories from saturated fat. These rules will only apply to events and locations during the school day, and will not be regulated during after school clubs, activities, or fundraisers. The regulation of food and nutrition at fundraisers will be debated in the ...
Many residents in San Jose’s low-income communities don’t have access to fresh produce or can’t afford it, which is one reason they experience higher rates of nutrition-related diseases than residents of more affluent areas. Some city policies make it difficult to bring new community gardens, farmers’ markets and mobile produce vendors into low-income communities. The Campaign for Healthy Food San Jose was a year-long coalition started in September 2011. They had many big dreams for the city, like getting healthier foods into the neighborhoods that don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. In the end, the City of San Jose adopted a new Specific Use Regulation for the permit process of Certified Farmers’ Markets (CFMs) located on private property. The Regulation states ...
Schools in southern Florida are implementing more changes to promote healthy eating amongst students. Various schools have started providing a salad bar, changing the vending machine options, and introducing more fruits and vegetables. The USDA's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act standardized calories per meal and what types of foods must be offered. However many schools in southern Florida are trying to go beyond that to create. They were making these changes before the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which has helped the changes become less objectionable. They have gotten rid of deep fryers in many schools, and began eliminating some high fat foods (like hot dogs, corn dogs, and fried foods). Although they are facing obstacles like the student's acceptance and intake of new food, they ...
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, have reintroduced Senate and House versions of the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act, legislation that aims to increase access to healthier foods for consumers in underserved communities by expanding economic opportunities for local and regional farmers. The bill would provide funding to help farmers process and sell their food locally, which incentivizes schools and low-income residents to purchase it. ...
