Beginning in mid-November of 2013, the University of Michigan Health Systems will only be offering healthy beverages on their campus and in their vending. This initiative is part of their commitment of health to their community and visitors of their Hospitals, Health Centers, administrative buildings, and Medical school. The new list of approved beverages for sale and distribution includes; water, flavored or infused waters, milk, tea, 100% fruit juice, diet beverages, coffee, and sugar-free sweetened coffee drinks (sugar packets will still be offered). Things no longer offered at these locations will be; non-diet soft drinks, sweetened fruit-flavored drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened teas, and sweetened coffees. The inclusion of healthier beverages will go beyond the ...
After years of trying to land a new park, residents of Earlimart, Calif., can now celebrate the success of a shared use agreement and soon-to-be-built 4-acre park. Residents living in the small rural community of Earlimart, Calif., lacked outdoor spaces for the physical activity they needed to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles and weights. The Earlimart School District’s superintendent responded to this need by trying an experiment. She had the custodial staff at one school leave the school gate open. Word got around that the school’s gate had been left open—soon the school’s field was filled with local residents. This experiment ultimately led to a change in the school district’s policy, which allows Tulare county residents from non-affiliated groups to use the school ...
What are you eating for lunch? Snack food may be the quickest—and unhealthiest—choice. In Santa Cruz County, California, a youth advocacy and leadership group called Jóvenes SANOS knew that their neighborhood needed to incorporate more healthy food options into daily life. That means healthy food even at bus stations.
Health in San Cruz County
Latinos comprise about 81% of the 50,000 people who live in Watsonville, Calif., which is situated in Santa Cruz County. Jóvenes SANOS, a youth advocacy group seeking to increase opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity for Watsonville youth through implementing long-term environmental policy and system change, understands that childhood obesity is a problem for Latinos. “49% of Hispanics in this ...
What happens when a school district’s wellness policy doesn’t cover student sports games or other after-school events? In one district in San Antonio, a Latino-majority city with approximately 63% of the residents being of Latino or Hispanic origin, a school board president drove a policy change to implement healthier menu options at concession stands during school-sanctioned after-school events. With the support of various school officials, parents, and students, the new menu extends the district’s already-strong wellness policy to after-school hours and allows healthier items for students and parents.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: In San Antonio, Texas, the North East Independent School District (NEISD), which has a population of about 67,000 students, of which 55 percent are ...
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 ...
San Antonio sisters Makayla Esparza, 9, and Alyssa Esparza, 8, led largely inactive lifestyles. They saw a weight-loss contest on TV and decided to get active and help others get active, but they didn’t know of any afterschool programs to join and they didn’t have anyone to be active with. This led to their big idea: invite all the kids from their neighborhood for a 90-day get fit challenge to improve. With the help of their grandmother, Dawn Guerrero, Alyssa and Makayla posted an ad on Craigslist to invite kids to be active with them. They also invited members from the fitness community to show them ways to be fit. Soon kids from all over the neighborhood started showing up, and the group “Fitness FUNatics” was born. Although their 90-day challenge is now over, the Fitness ...
San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra wants the city to consider not providing sugary drinks and whole milk at city property and events. He says that the city needs to be accountable for the types of beverages they are promoting, noting that sugary drinks are associated with unhealthy weights in children and adults. Plain and carbonated water, drinks sweetened with pure fruit juice, skim milk, 1-2 percent milk and non-sugary milk substitutes such as soy beverages would be acceptable beverages under Kalra's guidelines. Kalra asked the council's agenda-setting committee on August 28 to consider the idea, but the proposal did not move past that ...
In November 2012, the city of Richmond, CA voted against measures that would have put a one cent per one ounce business licence fee on sugar-sweetened beverages and use the revenue to fund activities related to reducing childhood obesity. The Richmond soda tax proposal brought a large amount of attention to the idea of taxing sugary drinks. Many public health experts saw this as a silver lining to the defeat in ...
Parents of overweight Latino children are willing to make tortillas with vegetable oil instead of lard and to make other healthy food and lifestyle choices to get their kids fit, a researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas has found. The focus group findings, which appear online in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, provide important starting points for fighting the epidemic of childhood obesity in Latinos, the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in Texas and nationally. “Almost half of all Latino kids are either overweight or obese,” said Dr. Glenn Flores, senior author of the study, in a news release. “It’s an important issue in terms of our future generations. If we intervene early enough, we won’t have obese ...
