Growing up in Spain, Dr. Marta Katalenas ate home-cooked meals made with fresh ingredients.When she moved to the United States in 1984 to learn English and become a pediatrician, she saw a different way of life that included way more treats, especially sugary juices and drinks. As she began her practice, she said she saw a growing association between kids drinking too much sugar and being overweight. Dr. Katalenas decided that if she was going to help parents set their kids on a path of health, she needed to get the whole community involved in reducing sugary drink consumption—so she made reducing sugary drinks part of her new monthly health challenge for families.
EMERGENCE Awareness: Spain native Dr. Marta Katalenas, who moved to the U.S. in 1984 and became a board-certified ...
Want to get better water access at your school but don't know where to start? The Water Works Implementation Guide can help you develop a comprehensive program to increase access to safe, appealing, low-cost drinking water sources in your school. It also provides ideas, materials, and resources to help you increase water consumption among the school community. Finally, the guide provides resources to help you evaluate the impact of your water program. The guide can be found at waterinschools.org, which also houses fact sheets and case studies about schools that have brought water back on to campus. Development of this guide was supported by a grant from the San Francisco Foundation and from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Healthy Eating Research program. Check ...
Cutler-Orosi is the largest unincorporated community in one of the poorest counties in California. Located in the largely Latino region called the San Joaquin Valley, more than half of the men and women who live here are migrant farm workers. Poverty limits food and beverage choices to what’s cheap, easy, and not always healthy. One school district food services director, Brenda Handy, went above and beyond to ensure that, while kids were at school, they were not only eating well, but drinking well, too.
Tackling the 'Soda Issue'
Ever since Brenda Handy started as food services director for the 95% Latino Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District in California’s San Joaquin Valley more than four years ago, she saw students struggle to maintain healthy weights. She noticed ...
Supported by the Horizon Foundation, Howard County Unsweetened has tools, resources, news, and more on how parents and their kids can swap sugary drinks for healthier alternatives. Their latest video campaign suggests that big soda companies should focus on promoting healthier beverages, like water, and not high-sugar drinks. The campaign challenges folks to rethink what marketing beverages to children should look like. Check out their latest video here! Howard County Unsweetened hosted a contest inviting high-schoolers to submit short documentaries about the problem of sugary drink consumption, and creative new ways to deal with it. They announced the winner in February 2014---watch the ...
Sugary drinks are a large component of added calories in the American diet. Latino kids have increased their consumption of sugary drinks—such as soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, and flavored milk—between 1991 and 2008, research shows. In Contra Costa, Calif., where 24% of the population is Latino, one of every three kids from low-income families are overweight or obese. A county organization worked with an advertising agency to develop a bilingual social marketing campaign, called Sugar Bites, to urge parents to choose water for their kids instead of sugary drinks.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: First 5 California is a state organization funded by Proposition 10, a statewide ballot initiative passed in 1998, to conduct health and education programs to benefit children ages ...
Research shows that children who consume too many sugary drinks risk developing diseases related to unhealthy weight. Latino children, because they tend to consume more sugary drinks than their peers, are at an even higher risk. Health leaders, school officials, and parents in one Latino community in California worked to create a policy to bump sugary drinks out of early-childcare centers and help kids fall in love with water at a young age.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: More than 44% of children overall in Madera County, Calif., are overweight or obese, and Latino children have even higher rates. Public health groups across California are recognizing these issues and working to reduce them. CA4Health, directed by the Public Health Institute (PHI) in California, is a statewide healthy-living ...
The nutritional quality of lunches is improving in schools in Fairfax, Va., which has a large Latino student population. But the news wasn’t all good. Parents saw that, despite healthier lunch improvements, sugary drinks remained stocked in vending machines. Sugary drinks consumption contributes to increased rates of obesity and diabetes, studies show. So several parents banded together and, with the support of a member of the local school board and students alike, made a change to remove sugary drinks and replace them with healthier options in vending machines at seven schools.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: The Fairfax School District serves around 184,000 students. In the district’s 25 high schools, Latinos make up 19% of the student body. JoAnne Hammermaster has two kids in the ...
Parents in the East Austin neighborhood of Dove Springs saw how sugary drinks were adding pounds not only on to their own waistlines but to their children's as well. Wanting to take control of their health and motivate others to do the same, the parents formed Manatial de Salud, with the mission to promote well-being in the Dove Springs community through healthy lifestyles and positive environments. The group began a "No Soda Challenge", where families would sign up and pledge to reduce their sugary drink intake. Manatial de Salud promoted their pledge at school festivals and other community events. On their website, you can check out videos (in Spanish) highlighting families that are phasing-out sodas and replacing them with water and delicious fruit-filled waters, like agua ...
In the newest effort to combat childhood obesity in United States, the Partnership for America's Health along with First Lady Michelle Obama has launched a new campaign to encourage kids and adults alike to drink more water, Drink Up. The First Lady helped kick-off the campaign in Watertown, Wisconsin, and spoke at a local high school According to the press release, In the next year, supporters will carry the Drink Up logo on nearly 300 million packs of bottle water; more than half a billion bottles of water; 200,000 packages of reusable bottles; and more than 10,000 reusable bottles. Additionally, more than 10,000 outdoor public taps are expected to carry the brand over the next few years. Check out ...
