The Obama administration is currently working to develop new guidelines for what is permissible in vending machines in public schools.Suggestions have been made that the healthy foods in vending machine guidelines may follow the plans already laid out by state regulations such as those governing schools in New York.
In New York, Education Law 915 prohibits
the sale of sweetened soda water, chewing gum, candies of various
sorts, water ices (except for those that contain fruit or fruit juices)
in public schools from the beginning of the school day until the end of
the last scheduled meal period.
Other states also have very specific vending machine regulations, including:
Now Playing: Birke Baehr, age 11, gives a TED Talk on What is Wrong with Our Food System
From Birke's mother:
This is my son. He first started asking questions when he was 8 after he
saw a post online (over my shoulder) about mercury in HFCS. From there
he did his own research and changed our family's conventional
supermarket eating habits to local, organic, sustainable. He wrote this
talk on his own and he said, "How can I tell what's wrong and what's
right all in 5 minutes? Our kid had the freedom to think and learn for
himself and I think he did a fine job
Imagine if every child was this well educated in how our food system really operates... and what a difference it would make to both our health and our environment.
This infographic, which was sponsored by Anytime Fitness, was released a couple of weeks ago. While Anytime Fitness is a gym chain, who obviously has a vested interest in getting people to their gym, the sources from whence the information came are valid and reliable (they can be seen at the bottom of the graphic) and this infographic really does present a strong, and easy to understand argument as to why we absolutely need more Nutrition in Education!
A few months ago I wrote Senator Rand Paul (among others) requesting they support continued funding of the National School Lunch Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children in bill HR 212. While this bill has since been and gone, today I received (a very belated) reply from Rand Paul.
Dear Ms. Pace,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding the important issue of child nutrition.
On
Nov. 17, 2011, the President signed H.R. 2112, the Consolidated and
Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 into public law (P.L.
112-55). This measure directs the amount of federal taxpayer dollars
that will be used to fund various mandatory food and nutrition programs
within the Department of Agriculture. For fiscal year 2012, the overall
funding level of $98.6 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) includes $18.2 billion for school lunch and school
breakfast programs and $6.6 billion for the Women, Infants, and Children
program.
While
the federal government is and continues to be a major provider of food
aid, our nation is in such a perilous financial situation that we must
continuously evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of these
programs. As we continue to battle the effects of the recent recession,
there will undoubtedly be many seeking to use these programs. We can
assist the truly needy, but with a national debt approaching $15
trillion and increasing structural deficits, we must be precise about
whom we decide to target with scarce federal resources. Because this
measure -- a massive spending bill that funds most of the federal
government -- only exacerbates our crushing national debt burden, and
because I believe that food aid can and should be administered by the
states and charitable organizations, I voted against H.R. 2112.
Again,
thank you for contacting my office. It is an honor and a privilege to
represent the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the United States Senate.
Please continue to inform me of any thoughts you may have on federal
legislative issues.
Sincerely,
Rand Paul, MD
United States Senator
What disturbs me the most about this letter, is that Rand Paul states "because I believe...". It is not a senators job to vote on a bill based on his personal feelings on the issue. It is his job to represent his constituents. Which makes me wonder... if there any point in advocating anything to this particular senator, if he is going to vote on bills based on his beliefs?
Sometimes change has to happen at home. Valentines Day is coming up this week, and thousands of children will go to school on Tuesday with their backpack filled with cheap candy to give to the other children in thier classroom. Not to mention that most classroom will also have a Valentines Day party, and further fill the children with salty, sugary and fatty foods.
Working in the classroom, this always made me cringe. But it wasn't my classroom so I couldn't say no to it. What I could, and did do every year, was ensure that the children's morning snack (usually animal crackers, goldfish or pretzels) would be fruit.
I would make each child a strawberry rose out of those monstrous strawberries that are available at this time of year. Sometimes they got rose buds, but if I had enough time in the classroom, I would make the "strawberry rose "bloom" right before their eyes. They LOVED it!
If you don't trust your knife skills, here is a small collection of other ideas you could bring to your child's classroom party or send in as an alternative to candy valentines.
Today Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative turned two! This is one of my favorite Nutrition in Education related programs because finally someone who the world looks to, the FLOTUS no less, has said We Need To Do Something! The acknowledgement that we need to pay more attention to the health of our youth is awesome. The fact that Mrs. Obama is so passionate about it ia amazing. I love to imagine that when the Obama's climb into bed at night, or are eating a family meal with Malia and Sasha, they are talking about the importance of eating healthy and staying active.
Doesn't that warm you heart?
I hope you enjoy these clips from the first day of Michelle Obama's Let's Move 2nd Anniversary tour (I particularly liked the bit where she is doing The Robot with school children from Iowa)
Now Playing:Healthy Kids and Teens program In Shelby Co. TN
Students from Airways Middle, Caldwell Elementary, Craigmont Middle, East High, Fox
Meadows Elementary, Memphis Academy of Health Science, Millington
Middle, Southwind Elementary, Southwind High and Ridgeway Middle are all participating in a 12 week program hosted by Healthy Kids and Teens.
Clintonia Simmons, the president of Healthy Kids and Teens explained that the idea behind the program is to make being healthy as attainable as possible by eliminate the confusion and complexity of health information available to the public. "We don't necessarily have them counting calories, but we want them to
be aware of how that all works in their bodies and why they continue to
gain weight when they want to lose", said Simmons.
The program has been available at some of the local schools for the past two semesters, however, this is the first time the program will be offered to elementary aged children. Activities include dancing to keep in shape and examining food and fat models to help understand what it is we put into our bodies. The underlying idea behind the program is that you have one life, with one body, so you need to that body with respect so it will last you a lifetime. An important component of the program is offering resources and advice to parents so they can support their children in making healthy choices.
Now Playing is giving credit where credit is due. While Nutrition in Education has a long way to go, there are many groups out there that are making a difference at a grassroots level. For the duration of the blog, I will feature schools/ districts and the programs they are utilizing to help make Nutrition in Education a reality.
Yesterday myself and 4 of the undergrads from the General Dietetics program briefly met with State Representative Rita Smart as part of Kentucky Dietetic Associations Day at the Capitol. Representative Smart is a great ally for Nutrition in Education, as her background is in Family and Consumer Sciences and before becoming a representative, she worked for many years as a Co-Operative Extension Agent.
While Representative Smart could only allocate a small portion of her day to meeting with myself and the other students (and this is often the case with Representatives and Senators while their committees are in session -
and should not discourage you from your advocacy efforts... your voice is being heard, even if briefly!), we were able to give her the big thumbs up and our solid support for a bill she has co-sponsored: HB 68.
House Bill 68 is a bill that promotes physical activity in elementary schools throughout Kentucky. The bill proposes that children in first through fifth grades, and kindergartners attending a full day should receive no less than 90 minutes per week
of physical activity, while children enrolled in half day kindergarten should receive a minimum of 45 minutes per week
of physical activity.
What a fantastic bill, right? Children need as many opportunities as they can to be physically active, especially at an elementary age when they are still developing their gross motor skills. Not to mention the wonder effects being active has on both a child's academics and their general classroom behavior.
During the KDA meeting, Senator Katie Stine spoke to the group (both dietitians and dietetic students alike) about other bills that effect the health of Kentuckians. Senator Stine is another passionate advocate for nutrition and physical activity and implores everyone to call the Legislative Hot Line at 1-800-372-7181 any time there is a health related bill to let your representatives know that you support it!
Name: E Pace From: Eastern Kentucky University About me: This is a blog about Nutrition in Education: The awesome programs that already exist, and what we can do to makes things even better!
