Grants for school gardens are now being given for up $1,000 to $2,000 from the Nature Works Everywhere program. Accepting applications for garden grants for the 2015–16 school year, funds will be used to support schools needing assistance for garden building, amendment, or revitalization of their on-campus garden. Preference will be given to rain, pollinator, native habitat, and other natural infrastructure projects. For more information on guidelines, requirements, and eligibility, please check out the full description of the Garden grant ...
Bonnie Y. Modugno, MS, RD, a nutrition consultant, and Shari Portnoy, MPH, RD, CFT, a registered dietitian both give nutritional advice and practices to help make student living healthier for K-12 students and college students alike. The site gives college students advice on how to stay healthy during the year when most college students harbor bad eating habits and often times heavy drinking occurs. By taking advantage of college intramural sports, and on-campus athletic trainers, and using resources on the site like, my food record, students can learn how to balance a healthy diet with exercise for a healthier mind and create healthy habits. Advice for k-12 students is also provided with resources like the EatWell plate, to help guide portion sizes and fun games from the USDA and ...
“What you drink can either positively or negatively impact your mind, your body and your health,” said Vish Vasani, a public health specialist with the Minneapolis Health Department, in a recent news article. “Low-income communities and communities of color are more likely to regularly consume sugary drinks.” Latino Teens are more likely to drink sugary beverages like sodas. Minneapolis has had a growing young Latino population according to an article in 2014. Unfortunately, the city is has also grown in rates of obesity according to Vasani. The state is trying to slim down on their consumption of sodas and sugary beverages with a statewide educational campaign, "Rethink Your Drink". The campaign has shown progress as restaurants are changing menus to include more healthy ...
The new results are out for the 2013-2014 years within the National Secondary School Survey Results. This survey shows the School Policies and Practices to Improve Health and Prevent Obesity findings since the 2007 studies began. Surveys from school administrators, mostly principals, were taken to measure the success and areas in need for progress in regards to diet and physical activity in schools. The major findings revealed that schools have been making noticeable efforts in offering students healthier foods and beverages for lunch, however, many students still have easy access to sugary beverages and junk foods. Very little progress was reported for increasing physical activity among students during or after school times. In fact, physical education requirements for high school ...
The mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Ivy Taylor, will be joining walking groups throughout San Antonio (63.2% Latino) to encourage walking and to help get San Antonio fit. It is important for local leaders to promote walking and physical activity to create a culture of health. It is also important for local leaders to understand the walkability or lack of walkability that local residents face on a daily basis. Join Ivy Taylor and the Mayor’s Fitness Council in their kick off “Walk with the Mayor” walk on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 6pm at the Alamo Beer Company, 415 Burnet. This recreational walk will be between City Council Districts 1 and 2. Future "Walk With the Mayor" walks will be with many of the already existing walking groups throughout San Antonio in all city council ...
Chicago, Illinois ( 28.9% Latino) is growing towards healthy connections for students by helping them connect to farmers and healthy foods through their classrooms. More and more schools in the area are allowing students to visit local farms, write to farmers, and learn what it takes to grow and harvest healthy foods as farm to school grows in Illinois. Programs like Adopt a Farmer, or free curriculums like Seven Generations Ahead are helping students understand the importance of where their food comes from, and what it takes to grow healthy foods. Field trips taken to farms like Angelic Organics Learning Farm, or Windy City Harvest Youth Farm are helping students become the next generation of food leaders. Farm to School in Illinois is taking off with urban farms and community ...
Science teacher and now paid brand ambassador of McDonalds', John Cisna, has been rolling out his infomercial video to schools across America, informing them that McDonalds helped him lose weight. In Cisna's documentary, 540 Meals: Choices Make the Difference, his daily choices at McDonalds lowers his caloric intake to help him loose weight and he starts having a more active lifestyle. Walking up to 45 minutes a day, where before he did not exercise at all, and eating at or less than 2,000 calories, when his body type required more than 3,000 calories to stay at his body weight of 280 pounds, he informs kids about a 'healthier lifestyle'. However effective Cisna is at losing weight in his documentary, it is not a way to market healthy food and lifestyle choices to kids, explains ...
What if fast food meals for kids were considered more nutritious? Researchers from New York University (NYU) studied kids' meals by looking at over 358 fast food receipts which detailed over 400 purchases of kids' meals. After calculating what those meals would look like with a set of healthy nutritional standards, researchers summed up that there would have been a nine percent drop in calories for kids if the fast food meals purchased were up to their standards. This may not seem like much, but Dr. Brian Elbel, the lead author of the study and associate professor in the department of population health at NYU, said in a recent article, that these changes on fast food kids' meals would be a step in the right direction to help fight against childhood obesity. The new bill purposed ...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 50% of all post-Millennial youths will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes during their lifetime. Latinos are the group that is likely to be the most susceptible to the disease. Two nursing school students from Arizona State University (ASU), Tatianna Alvarado and Jamie Karch have taken on roles in a community-based diabetes prevention program aimed at Latino youths called “Every Little Step Counts.” “Many of my family members have diabetes and my mother is a type 2 diabetic,” Alvarado said. “The last year of high school I took care of her. I’d interact with her, told her what diabetes was … but there was only so much I could do as a daughter.” The program is funded by a $1.2 grant from the ...
