55,564 people—including members of Salud America!—submitted public comments to help shape the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A federal advisory committee will consider the public comments, collected from March 2019 to June 2020, as they create a scientific report to inform the new dietary guidelines. Our members made over 250 comments to add water to the MyPlate/MiPlato graphic, reduce added sugars, and promote dietary equity. The USDA and HHS will use the scientific report and comments to draft the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. But don't worry if you missed commenting! USDA and HHS will open a new comment period for the advisory committee's scientific report around July 15, 2020. "We're excited that so many people spoke up for equitable ...
Some kids witness domestic violence or murder. Some see loved ones hurt in accidents. These kids still have to go to class or carry on while school is out for summer or due to a pandemic. They face a burden of stress and trauma that can interfere with their behavior and grades—and schools often aren’t even aware there’s an issue. Fortunately, you can still help these kids. Download the free Salud America! “Handle With Care Action Pack.” The Action Pack helps police, school, and mental healthcare leaders start the Handle with Care program, in which police notify schools when they encounter children at a traumatic scene, so schools can provide support right away. They can virtually support kids if school is out for summer or closed due to a pandemic like the ...
The EPA wants to roll back water protections — again. In 2015, the Obama-era administration enacted the Coal Ash Rule, which provided water protections against toxic waste from coal-fired power plants. Now, the current EPA administration is hoping to diminish those protections, and give the plants more time and power to dump waste continually — all of which will impact the surrounding areas' groundwater. Environmental justice leaders say these rollbacks would worsen damage that has been done for years. "Instead of having a single strong national set of public health protections for this polluting industry, we are going to be left with federal regulations that are riddled with loopholes," Tom Cmar, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, told NPR.
Submit ...
Medical and health experts agree that being active outside is crucial to maintaining physical and mental health—as long as we keep 6 feet of distance between each other amid coronavirus. But social distancing is hard when so many more people are using sidewalks, trails, and parks. That’s where open streets can help. Open streets, which close streets to vehicle traffic, create more outdoor space for people to walk, bike, roll, and stay active and socially distant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sign a petition by the Rails to Trails Conservancy to urge local leaders to close select streets to car traffic, and open them for human activity during this global pandemic! SIGN THE PETITION!
The Growing Need for Open Streets
As the U.S. coronavirus pandemic continues, trail ...
Proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) could bring back redlining, relax affordable housing definitions, and reduce the number of bank loans, investments, and services in low- and moderate-income communities and those of color, experts say. The CRA was developed in 1977 to curb redlining—discriminatory lending—and push banks to better serve communities. Now, federal agencies are proposing changes to modernize the complex law. But housing advocate Miriam Axel-Lute and others worry it weakens the CRA and is a “clear invitation to return to redlining.” “In addition, some investments in infrastructure and sports stadiums in low- and moderate-income communities would now qualify for CRA credit without any requirement that they primarily benefit low- and ...
School food nutrition is at risk again. The USDA, which relaxed school nutrition standards in 2018, is proposing two rule changes it says will give schools and summer programs more flexibility to meet student meal preferences and reduce food waste. But health experts warn this will roll back progress on school food nutrition. Schools could, for instance, cut breakfast fruit by a half-cup. Fries and burgers could be served a la carte. Pasta could count as a vegetable. This is a longer-term health threat than the coronavirus pandemic, according to Healthy Eating Research. "This would create a huge loophole in school nutrition guidelines, paving the way for children to choose pizza, burgers, French fries, and other foods high in calories, saturated fat or sodium in place of ...
Earlier this year, the EPA under Andrew Wheeler announced plans to address widespread lead corruption in U.S. public water supplies. In October, the agency released proposed revisions to the Safe Drinking Water Act's "Lead and Copper Rule." These modifications aim to decrease the pervasiveness of the toxin through a series of regulations — including limits on allowed levels of lead in water. Environmentalist groups—including Clean Water Action—are calling for further action. Mainly, they urge for a full replacement of lead services lines throughout the country. If these lines are left intact, they pose a serious concern to Latinos and Americans across the country who face dangerous lead exposure through their drinking water. "Everything else is small potatoes," Erik ...
Salud America! members were among more than 120,000 people who submitted comments about a proposed cut the the SNAP federal food aid program. USDA wants to change in how it calculates heating and cooling costs when it comes to SNAP benefits. The change would limit individual states’ abilities to factor in utility costs with SNAP. This could affect people who live in cold-weather states like New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Vermont. The change would cut program benefits by $4.5 billion over five years. Almost 8,000 households would lose SNAP benefits entirely. Although people submitted 120,000 comments via regulations.gov, only 5,060 are available publicly on the website. Of these, 150 were from Salud America! members. "SNAP cuts have dangerous impacts on ...
Amid an obesity crisis and a coronavirus pandemic, Latinos and all people need more water, and less sugar. Do you agree? Speak up! Submit a model comment below to urge the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to add water to the MyPlate/MiPlato graphic, reduce the amount of added sugars, and make healthier diets equitable for all people! Update 6/11/20: Over 55,000 people submitted comments!
Submit a Comment for Dietary Equity!
Nearly two of every three people in the United States live with at least one chronic disease like obesity and heart disease, according to the CDC. These are caused in part by poor diets. Unhealthy eating is now the top cause of premature death in the nation (https://salud.to/unhealthy-eating-death). Communities of color and low-income families ...
