Science backs up your mom’s old adage: “Eat your fruits and vegetables if you want to be healthy and strong!” Unfortunately, this message is often lost or unheeded, buried beneath junk food ads relentlessly targeting kids, especially Latinos. Leaders in San Antonio, Texas decided to combat the city’s troubling obesity rate with a campaign designed to get kids (and their parents!) to eat more fruits and veggies. The “Veg Out” campaign, backed by science and a diverse coalition of public health, school, city, and other officials, aims to have a lasting impact on the health of families in San Antonio. EMERGENCE Awareness: San Antonio is a unique, mostly Latino city known for its rich culture and traditions. However, some cultural traditions, like the consumption of ...
President Barack Obama has just announced the launch of a new initiative designed to get kids in parks! The Every Kid in a Park initiative will provide 4th graders and their families with free access to national parks for a whole year. Along with providing students with this important opportunity to experience the outdoors, the president also announced the designation of three new National Monuments across the U.S. The Every Kid in a Park initiative will expand opportunities for children by Making it easy for schools and families to plan trips by providing information about nearby parks, waters, & student programming;
Providing transportation support to schools with the greatest need, through the Ticket to Ride program; and
Providing educational materials via ...
Senators and representatives in Idaho, a state with a quickly growing Latino community, are tracking their steps, water intake, and servings of fruits and vegetables as part of a month long, friendly competition aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and fighting childhood obesity. According to a Fox9 report 50 state legislators are taking part in a competition organized by health insurance provider Blue Cross of Idaho. At the end of the competition the three legislators who track the most physical activity and record eating more fruits and vegetables will win $5,000 from the Blue Cross of Idaho to go toward providing healthier options to elementary school children in their district. Funds will provide for outdoor exercise equipment, healthier meal options, and any other ...
What can communities do to encourage physical activity and protect the environment? According to Dr. Marty Nathan of Springfield, Massachusetts the answer is simple---remove barriers to walking by fixing and maintaining sidewalks. Dr. Nathan, who works as a physician in the North End of Springfield, a predominantly Latino side of town, believes that walking can prevent three things that cause us harm: obesity, air pollution and climate change. "I try as much as I can to avoid using cars to get where I need to go," Nathan said in a MassLive editorial. In the editorial Dr. Nathan speaks of how many of the low-income patients she sees depend on having safe places to walk, to get to jobs, stores and services. "Their health suffers when that cheapest of exercise forms – ...
Our friends over at Active Living Research (ALR) have done a wonderful job of creating a new Spanish infographic titled: "Hay Lugares Seguros Para Que Todos Los Ninos Puedan Realizar Actividades Físicas?" This translated version of ALR's popular "Do All Kids Have Safe Places to Be Active?" infographic was a collaborative effort between ALR and Salud America! The infographic paints a clear picture of the multiple barriers that keep children from low-income, Latino, and African American communities from being active. Despite the lack of recreational facilities, broken sidewalks, inadequate time for recess, and higher rates of automobile crashes and crime that exist in these underserved communities, there's hope! By working for improved policies and improvements to ...
With the January 2015 release of California's Parks Forward recommendations Latinos and all Californians have the chance to take part in rebuilding the California parks system. According to the recommendations, parks are essential to the well being of Californians. In a recent op-ed, Ron Gonzales, former mayor of San Jose and president/CEO of the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley writes about securing parks for California and the power that Latinos have to make such changes. "By speaking out now, we can improve the health of Hispanic Californians in nearly every corner of the state," Gonzales said. "We can secure safe places for our kids to play and socialize and permanently alter the landscape of Latino neighborhoods. We can expand access to healthy-living resources, ...
In the fall of 2014, through a partnership between Openlands and the Healthy Schools Campaign, four Chicago schoolyards were transformed into dynamic spaces for outdoor learning and active play. According to a recent blog post from the Healthy Schools Campaign, for over a year community leaders and school officials at four pilot schools had been planning for the implementation of the Space to Grow program. The hope is to provide children with an opportunity to go beyond the confines of the traditional learning environment to outdoor classrooms, where they will have the chance to experience edible gardens, hands on science lessons, and the opportunity to be more active. Students at Schmid, Grissom, Leland, and Morrill elementary schools are all benefiting from the new ...
The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) was ready to step up the fight to improve health in the face of rising obesity problems among racial/ethnic populations. Latino and black high-school students were especially overweight/obese (34.2% and 35.9%, respectively), possibly due to the fact that 24% of students consume at least one soda daily, according to a study. The BPHC developed a bilingual public health campaign against sugary drinks to help racial/ethnic residents make healthier choices. EMERGENCE Awareness/Learn: Obesity is typically a bigger problem among racial/ethnic populations. Boston, which is increasingly diverse, with an 18% Latino and 24% black population, exemplifies this disparity. In 2010, Latino and black high-school students were very overweight (34.2% ...
A new program in north Fort Collins is working to address health disparities by providing Latinos with more opportunities for bike safety education. The Vida Sana program---an initiative the Coalition for Activity and Nutrition to Defeat Obesity (CanDo) which and funded by the state and led by The University of Colorado Health---looks for ways to remove barriers to leading a healthy lifestyle for Latinos. According to a news article in the Coloradoan, without proper knowledge of biking in Fort Collins, individuals may feel stressed when traveling by bike. In order to overcome this barrier, Vida Sana is offering culturally appropriate bicycle education which will empower individuals to use their bikes regardless of age, ability or background. To make this opportunity ...
