I thought I was done blogging, but Bettina over at
The Lunch Tray has written a manifesto in response to her children being consistently "rewarded" with junk food in the class room (the treat bucket is one of my pet peeves as a person who has worked in the public school system) that I just had to share!
And I hope you will share it too!
Labels: Advocacy in Action, Grassroots Movement
Grassroots Movement: Fit Kids
I decided to take my own advise earlier this month and do some grassroots advocacy for the FIT Kids Act. Using the very cute poster that the American Heart Association has designed (as seen below), I put posters up around campus to increase knowledge of the cause.
You can download your own version of this poster
here in order to canvas your own community.
Below is a snapshot of a poster I places on a bulletin board.
Labels: Advocacy in Action, Grassroots Movement
Advocacy in Action: Proposals
Throughout this blog I have spoken a lot about asking representatives to support a bill that is currently being considered by one committee or another. But have you ever considered that you can impact policies before they are even made?
The United States Department of Agriculture is currently reviewing it's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP). The purpose of FFVP is to provide children with a variety of fruits and vegetables as healthy snack options at participating schools.
With the help of Prevent Obesity I have written a letter to Tom Vilsack, Secretary to the USDA, to let him know I support FFVP and requesting that the review addresses a few key points.
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
I am writing to show my support of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable
Program and your effort to standardize it so that more children will
benefit. Having a program that teaches students about the importance of
eating fruits and vegetables by allowing them to try the produce helps
educate them about nutrition and helps kids’ lead healthier lives.
As you finalize your proposal, I ask that you include the following requirements:
1. States conduct outreach to schools serving the highest percentage of children eligible for free or reduced-price meals;
2. State agencies provide schools with the training and technical assistance necessary to operate the program efficiently;
3. Schools implement the program five days per week;
4. Schools incorporate nutrition education into the program; and
5. Schools use only fresh, fresh-cut, and nutritionally equivalent fruits and vegetables in the program.
To ensure that schools can reach the goal of serving nutritious
snacks as part of this program, it is also important that your agency
allow them to use a portion of their total funding for non-food
costs—such as the purchase or lease of kitchen equipment.
This program can and does help improve students’ dietary intake,
which in turn reduces their risk for obesity, diabetes, high blood
pressure and other serious chronic diseases. Healthier children do
better in school and we all benefit.
If you would like to let the USDA know you also support FFVP, you can do so here. Labels: Advocacy in Action, Policy
Advocacy in Action: Fed Up With Lunch
Sarah Wu, the author of
Fed Up with Lunch and
a blog of the same name, is an amazing school lunch reform advocate. For a year, Wu committed to eating lunch as her students did in the school cafeteria, and documented each lunch so the public to see what was really being served. Her book and blog got a lot of attention from health advocates and the general public alike and has been a key element in recent health reform.
Recently Wu
blogged about the reaction she gets from people when she tells them about the work she does. "Parents should just pack a lunch for their kids” she is told time and time again. But this is the furthest thing we can do to cause reform.
I had some thoughts of my own to share:
I strongly recommend checking out
Fed Up with Lunch - it is among the best school lunch reform resources out there.
Labels: Advocacy in Action
One of the bills I have been advocating for is Bill 110 - a provision that will allow school property in Kentucky to be made available for the community to use to be more physically active. A bill that would allow schools to open up their playgrounds to children on the weekends, or their halls to walking programs in the winter, without the worry of liabilities.
Before I even started this blog, I spoke to my Community Nutrition class about the importance of this piece of legislature.
 |
Students enjoy an after school game
by Gwen |
Well, we did it! Senate Bill 110 passed with overwhelming support this week! What a great was to end National Nutrition Month!
Labels: Advocacy in Action, Grassroots Movement, Policy
Advocacy in Action: Footpaths = A Healthy Future
Today, the American Heart Association is pushing the Safe Route to School bill, in person, on the fax-lines and over the phone. The message the AHA is promoting is “give America’s kids the right of way to a healthy life” by preserving the program in the federal transportation bill.
Walking is a great way to promote health, and walking to school is a fantastic way for children to be more active. Any grandparent will tell you they walked 15 miles, bare foot, up hill both ways to school! While this is (usually) an exaggeration, it is part of what kept our older generations healthy. In their school-days, children were able to walk to school, even if there were no footpaths, because the roads were less congested, and drivers much more conscious of pedestrians, as they were commonplace. Today, with out footpaths, it is simply unsafe for children to walk. For the vast majority of Kentucky, these footpaths do not exist.
The fate of Safe Routes to School, which helps communities build safe
sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike paths that allow kids to be more
physically active, is still up in the air. But thanks to your action, we
are making progress. Just last week, the Senate included a provision in
its transportation bill that would ensure that local governments and
school systems are able to access critical funds to make communities
safer for bicycling and walking. But our work is far from over until a
final bill is passed and signed.
- Clarissa Garcia, AHA
Today I have done my part by faxing Representative Chandler and Senators McConnell and Paul the document above. You too can download the fax and personalize it with your own details by
clicking here, to send to your Representatives and Senators, or you can call the Capitol switchboard
(202-224-3121) to connect with your legislators.
Labels: Advocacy in Action
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?
Labels: Advocacy in Action, Policy
Advocacy in Action: Meeting with Rita Smart
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! Labels: Advocacy in Action, Policy
