In October of 2012, at the 140th Annual American Public Health Association (APHA) Meeting, The Governing Council created a resolution to support the National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP), as a strategic plan to improve physical activity rates in the United States. The NPAP includes over 250 strategies for active living similar to those mentioned in the 2011 National Prevention Strategy, published by the National Prevention Council through the General Surgeon's Office. It outlines strategies that would increase physical activity in all segments of the population, with special emphasis towards the vulnerable and at-risk populations. The plan features recommendations for 8 different sectors of society, which include: Business and industry
Education
Health Care
Mass ...
Ms. Wells’s second grade class in Fort Mills, South Carolina, wrote a letter to the Fort Mills Times editor, explaining their desire to have a second recess period at their school. In the letter they explain that more physical activity time will improve their ability to "focus better" in their classroom. Read the letter that Ms. Wells's class sent to the editor of the Fort Mills ...
Schools in Wenatchee School District, Wa., will be seeing healthier meals in their lunch rooms and an improved effort to change the way food is used throughout the school day. The District's food service director, Kent Getzin, is focusing on encouraging students to try new foods, showing students where foods come from, and changing the way food is used in the school as reward or fund raising opportunities. “It comes back to our philosophy about our kids being healthy, and eating well, and the impact that has on learning,” said Superintendent Brian Flones, in The Wenatchee World article , “Like any other life skill, kids need to learn early what’s going to be best for them. And if we’re not modeling it with what we do at school, they’re going to probably leave with a lot ...
Students in Mason County, West Virginia, are able to begin their school day with a healthy, nutritious breakfast. They eat with their fellow classmates and prepare their brains for a day of learning. The success of school breakfasts for all students in Mason County has lead to the passing of a bill that will require all schools in West Virginia to provide a school breakfast to every student before the day's lesson's begin. The goal of this program is to improve achievement in the state and reduce childhood obesity, which is extremely important in this state with 29% of high school students being obese. Along with requiring breakfast, this bill requires every county to set up a fund to collect private donations that will go toward other healthy initiatives like buying more fresh produce ...
Latina girls are learning about fitness, nutrition, healthy body image and other valuable lessons at a new summer day camp called Adelante Chicas at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. The camp, a three-week event for Latina girls from third grade to high school, is a youth development arm of Oregon nonprofit Adelante Mujeres, which provides holistic education, career development and support services for low-income Latinas and their families, OregonLive.com reports. Girls at the camp participate in yoga, historic walks, nutrition lessons and even get to transform Spinach into a fruit ...
A new set of reports released this week rank the health of more than 3,000 U.S. counties and show that much of what affects health occurs outside of the doctor’s office. The County Health Rankings, in their second year and led by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), confirm the critical role that factors such as education, jobs, income, and environment play in how healthy people are and how long they live. See this map to find your county. Some highlights of what counties look like nationally: People are nearly twice as likely to be in fair or poor health in the unhealthiest counties;
Unhealthy counties have significantly lower high school graduation rates;
Unhealthy counties have more than twice as ...
