Texans Care for Children launched Drink Well Texas in 2012 to educate Texas children and their parents about the hazards of drinking too many sugary drinks. Drink Well Texas also strives to mobilize folks to take action against big soda companies and supports taxing sugar-sweetened beverages. Kids and their parents can get involved by pledging to drink less sugary drinks and by signing up for news and policy updates. Drink Well Texas also submitted a video to the Center for Science in Public Interest (CSPI)'s Pour One Out Contest, a contest to combat the advertising of sugary drinks by creating fun, innovative videos that outlined the risks of drinking too much ...
In an effort to get more people biking, a local volunteer group by the name of Open Austin has partnered with the Office of Council Member Chris Riley, the City of Austin Public Works Neighborhood Connectivity Division, and other bike organizations in Austin to create the Bike Buddy website. The Bike Buddy website aims to connect novice cyclists with experienced bikers to encourage more bike commuting in Austin. On the Bike Buddy website, one can also gain access to the Movability Austin website, which encourages individuals to break the habit of driving and consider adopting an alternative means of transportation. Learn more about Austin's Safe Passing Ordinance, which protects cyclists while on the road, by watching the ...
Parents in New Haven called for change after realizing that children in some schools were not given time for recess. One parent, Tanhee Cookson Muhammad learnedthat her son Enaji was denied the right to recess as a form of punishment. At some schools children only have recess on days that they don’t have PE class. This led Muhammad to join up with a group of local parent advocates, who decided to create a petition as part of a campaign called Recess For All. The petition requests that all public school children, in grades K-8, receive at least 20 minutes of recess a day. Accordingto a state bill passed in 2012, children in grades K-5th are required to receive at least 20 minutes of physical activity throughout the schoolday. Still, not enough schools are enforcing this ...
This summer, when families set out to visit our country's variety of beautiful national parks, they won't have to sacrifice health for a fun vacation. The National Park Service announced a new nationwide plan in June 2013 that would ensure all its parks offer healthy food and beverage choices. Called the Healthy and Sustainable Food Program, the new standards include requirements that fruits and vegetables be offered with all entrees or as a la carte side dishes. Low-fat and low-sodium options must be available as well.The park service worked with the companies that supply foods and beverages to come up with new menu items and is encouraging companies to use locally grown and raised food when possible. About 23 million people buy food at national parks each year; what can they ...
Hispanics make up almost two-thirds of people living in South Los Angeles, a community where chronic disease rates are high and fresh, affordable food is hard to find. A partnership between a family health clinic and a local non-profited focused on getting folks good food has led to doctors at the clinic writing prescriptions for a new kind of medicine: fresh fruits and vegetables. St. John's Well Child and Family Center has partnered with Community Services Unlimited to run weekly produce stands at two of its sites for patients, families and clinic staff. Besides making healthy food available, doctors are writing their patients "prescriptions" to purchase the produce. The prescriptions reinforce the fact that diet can be as important as medication when it comes to feeling ...
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 ...
New York City has been a leader in adopting polices that fight childhood obesity, and with Latinos as the largest minority group in the City, these policies can make a big difference in the health of Latino children. One way New York City has been helping folks live healthier lives is through ad campaigns targeted at limiting sugary drinks, a huge source of extra calories in children's diets. As part of the Pouring on the Pounds ad campaign launched in 2009, the NYC Health Department has released a new group of ads that warn New Yorkers that a drink may sound healthy but in fact be just the opposite. The new ads encourage folks to replace high-sugar fruit-flavored drinks and sport drinks with low-fat milk and water. Check out all four ads in both English and ...
The R and G in "R&G Family Grocers" stand for "real" and good" and that's exactly the kind of food the mobile grocery will be bringing to folks in Northwest Tulsa. With a growing Latino population, families in this area have to travel more than five miles to the nearest grocery store, which takes hours by bus. "All the grocery stores around here are just little convenience stores and you just buy nothing but junk food in them," said one neighbor. A mobile food store is planning to bring healthier food options to this community. The store is inside a trailer that is pulled around town by a truck. Once or twice a week it will bring milk, eggs, meat and fresh fruits and vegetables into the neighborhood. The hope is to improve the health of folks in Northwest Tulsa. The store owners ...
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 ...
