The Indianapolis community knows first hand how obesity and hunger are linked. 40 percent of children in the city are overweight or obese, but at the same time 1 in 5 people in Indianapolis don't know where their next meal will come from. A group of city nonprofits want to change that by forming the Indy Food Council. Similar to councils in other cities, the Indy Food Council will act as a governing body for the city’s food system, addressing persistent problems, such as food deserts in the urban areas, plus capitalizing on opportunities for economic development. The council hopes to bring together folks who are already trying to bring better food into neighborhoods, like food banks, urban garden advocates, health officials and academics. The Indy Food Council, with its board of 18 to ...
In 2012, the city of Indianapolis signed a Complete Streets proposal which will modify city code once implemented. The Complete Streets Coalition has rated Indianapolis' Complete Streets Policy as the best policy of the year. The ordinance will ensure that both public and private developments consider the transportation needs of all users when developing new land or road projects. The success of this policy will be measured based on a number of performance measures outlined in the policy. The total miles of bike lances, total feet of new pedestrian accommodations, and rate of children walking or biking to school, are all examples of specific measures that will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of this policy on a quarterly and annual basis. More information This article from the ...
Alice Independent School District (Alice ISD) entered into a joint use agreement with Migrant Health Promotion Inc. on November 26, 2012. The joint use agreement will keep tracks, playgrounds, and walking trails open to the public over the next five years. Through the Transforming Texas initiative, Migrant Health Promotion Inc. was charged with creating physical activity opportunities for the residents of Jim Wells County. Program coordinator for the Transforming Texas initiative, Robert De Leon believes that this shared use agreement will serve to provide recreational facilities to those living in the rural community of Jim Wells County. De Leon also believes that this joint use agreement will guide local policy makers in understanding how environmental changes can impact a person's ...
A hospital should be a place where the healthy choice is always the easiest choice, but that's not often the case.Many hospitals across the country fill their food courts with pizza, burgers, and junk food vending machines. Talk about mixed messages! The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), with support for the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative, has asked hospitals across the United States to clean up their act and start serving healthier, more delicious food. In early March, 400 more hospitals have stood up to make a change. This means that as many as 550 hospitals will now be participating in the program ...
In September of 2011, the Houston Endowment awarded a grant of $2.5 million dollars to The Harris County Healthcare Alliance to fund a local private-public partnership called Healthy Living Matters (HLM). The partnership consists of a multi-sector group of local leaders, engaged in a two-year planning initiative to curb childhood obesity in Houston/Harris County by using policy action to enact system and environmental change. HLM has partnered with students in undeserved areas to address needs in their communities. The students went out into the community and took pictures of things that make healthy living difficult and then presented their findings in at a summit that gathered health professionals, academics, and community members. The students also made ...
In January of 2009, the Healthy Out-of-School Time coalition was formed and by April of 2011 the group had adopted the healthy eating and physical activity quality standands (HEPAQS) for out-of-school time. In this article from Childhood Obesity, Wiecha et al. (2012) discuss the protocol used to develop the HEPAQS as well as the implications they may have on policy development. HEPAQS includes 11 standards for Healthy Out-of-School Time, that could serve as voluntary guidelines for out-of-school programs and curricula.The physical activity component of this document offers guidelines for: best practices;
staff training;
social support;
program support; and
environmental support. According to a recent study, although Latino children met screen time viewing recommendations, ...
The Cooper Institute and United Way Metropolitan Dallas have collaborated to form the Healthy Zone School Program. The Healthy Zone School Recognition Program encourages schools to implement policies and initiatives to help fight childhood obesity, in the Dallas area. In order to be a part of the program, schools must go through a competitive selection procedure. To be considered for the program a school must demonstrate that it: promotes healthy eating;
provides various opportunities for children to participate in physical activity;
provides physical education that lives up to the standards of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education; and
has established a School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) that is comprised of various stakeholders. If a school lacks any ...
Competitions like the HEB Community Challenge prompt communities to make healthy lifestyle changes, and help raise awareness of childhood obesity. In 2012, a total of 38 mayors across Texas and several school officials recorded videos asking members of their community to participate in this state wide challenge. A total of 324 communities were enlisted in the challenge and 14,517 individuals were engaged in the effort to make their community a healthier one. At the end of the competition the winning cities of the challenge were San Antonio, Brownsville, and Pflugerville. This video showcases the top nine scoring communities in the H-E-B Community Challenge. One winner was selected from a small, medium, or large city. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4sdcm2qUsw Not only did the Healthy ...
Healthy Living Matters (HLM), a childhood obesity prevention collaborative, has committed to curbing obesity in the Houston/Harris County area by using policy action to make healthier changes in communities. Made up of a handful of local leaders and professionals, HLM engages youth as change-agents in their communities. After empowering the youth to assess current food access and built environment within their Houston/Harris County neighborhoods, they hope to educate at-risk communities on what can be done to make healthy living easier. HLM continuously monitors federal, state and local policy trends that impact childhood obesity. By year two, they hope to put out a Community Action Plan, which will serve as a roadmap for policy implementation. While HLM hopes to affect environmental ...
