When kids choose to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less soda and chips, they set a good example for friends and family. But what if they can’t maintain their healthy lifestyle at school? Read what happens when youth leaders work with their San Antonio, Texas, school board to get healthy, vegan and vegetarian-approved lunch items into their cafeteria, not only to satisfy their desire to eat healthy but to empower other students to make healthier choices.
The Issue of Healthy Food Options at School
Awareness/Learn: For Sandra Garcia, it took planting a garden to realize just how powerful healthy food can be for a community. “When SWU [Southwest Workers’ Union] started the Roots of Change Garden in 2007, I realized how beautiful it was to grow your own ...
Youth and local leaders joined forces to launch Open Truth, a counter-advertising campaign that exposes big soda companies’ marketing tactics. The result was a series of poems and videos created by youth, as well as dozens of ads viewed by millions, a website, and a viral social media campaign aimed at getting those targeted by soda companies to speak out against Big Soda.
The Problem of Sugary Drinks and Obesity Awareness: By 2008, Christina Goette of the San Francisco Public Health Department and Shape Up San Francisco (Shape Up SF), a coalition of community groups and leaders interested in preventing chronic disease and promoting better health for the region, were already very concerned about the rise in type 2 diabetes. They weren’t the only ones concerned. With ...
In El Paso, Texas, kids are priority No. 1 thanks to a community-school partnership that prioritizes physical activity and health for children. The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) created and its Get HIP Now program to provide elementary- and middle-school students with integrated school health programming, alongside before- and after-school physical activity.
Physical Inactivity in Schools
Awareness: As early as 2005, leaders at the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD), an 83% Latino school district in El Paso, Texas, were becoming aware of student obesity issues. It seemed obvious that students could benefit from improvements to physical activity programing, according to John Adams, a P.E. instructor at the time who would eventually become the EPISD ...
How do you get an entire city of people to get up and moving? Build them new trails and places to walk! That’s what happened when Angela Mora and other El Paso city officials teamed with community groups to gather a small budget and launch Move! El Paso Fitness Trails. The initiative created 13 new walking trails for the community, expanding the opportunities for people to walk, get moving, and reduce obesity!
The Struggle to Stay Active in El Paso Angela Mora, deputy director of the El Paso Public Health Department, was well aware of the city’s growing obesity problem. A lack of physical activity opportunities was a big reason for these obesity rates. A few years ago, about 29% of adults in El Paso County were physically inactive, compared to state and national averages ...
Improved technology, like smart phones and tablets, is often blamed for increasing unhealthy, sedentary lifestyles in children. But what if this technology could be used to actually promote healthy living? Learn how a non-profit in Austin, Texas created a free mobile App that connects folks ready to get healthier with countless opportunities right in their backyard.
The Need for Better Health in the Community
Awareness: Chances are most Texans know someone, even kids, with diet-related health conditions. In fact, 42.8% of 4th graders in Texas are overweight or obese. Making healthier lifestyle changes can make a big difference. Fortunately, IT’S TIME TEXAS (ITT) is one of the many organizations across the state working to help people to lead healthier lives and build ...
San Antonio student Michaelie Love knows that, for many high school students, the hour before school begins is spent socializing or cramming for tests—not in the cafeteria eating a healthy breakfast. Breakfast is included in the federal school nutrition program and is free or reduced-price for students who qualify. Health professionals say skipping breakfast before school can lead to poor academic performance and unhealthy over-eating later in the day. Love wanted to make eating breakfast at school easy, healthy, and cool.
Breakfast Habits among Youth
The North East Independent School District (NEISD) is the second-largest school district in San Antonio with about 68,000 students, 58% of which are Latino. Michaelie Love is a junior at NEISD’s International School of the ...
The zoo isn’t exactly a place of health (for humans), with typical fare like popcorn, ice cream, cotton candy, and sugary drinks. However, in El Paso, Texas, kids and visitors of all ages are learning fun facts about how they can be healthy by copying habits, like eating fruits and vegetables, from animals. In 2012, the El Paso Zoo installed new signs and healthy menu items to promote good health for its record-breaking 354,130 visitors, and they continue to work with city public health officials to make a healthy lifestyle second nature to the community.
How Healthy Is the Food at Your Zoo?
Awareness: In 2010, El Paso, Texas, a vibrant a city with a rich culture at the west-most point of the state, was named the “third-fattest city” in the U.S. Sue Beatty, a health ...
El Paso, Texas has come a long way since ranked as the third-fattest U.S. city in 2012. A renewed focus on eating healthy and moving more is paying off; obesity rates in the area are dropping. In addition to local health departments and community organizations, schools are playing a big role in these changes by addressing health, culture and community all at once. At Bowie High School, with the help of teacher Ana Suffle, students are getting exposed not only to gardening, nutrition education and business skills, they are reconnecting with cultural traditions that favor fresh and flavorful over processed and sugary.
The Lack of Healthy Food in Schools
Awareness/Learn: The city of El Paso, Texas, shares its border with Mexico. This creates an interesting dynamic where some ...
From PowerPoint presentations to outlines to thick textbooks, there are many ways students learn about the world while at school. Rarely do they get the chance to learn by actually solving real-world problems—let alone problems that directly affect their lives. Learn how Rick Treviño, a high school teacher in San Antonio, Texas, merged academics with activism and rallied his students to bring healthy, affordable fruits and vegetables into their neighborhood.
The Lack of Healthy Food in the Community
Awareness: While listening to the radio one day, San Antonio resident and high school teacher Rick Treviño got an idea. He was listening to a news story about how a group in Michigan started a Double Up Food Bucks program at local farmers’ market as a way to allow low-income ...
