Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled. Today, almost one in every three children in our nation is obese or overweight. The numbers are even higher in African American and Hispanic communities, where nearly 40% of the children are overweight or obese. If we don’t solve this problem, one third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. Many others may face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and asthma.
Everyone has a role to play in reducing childhood obesity, including elected officials from all levels of government, schools, health care professionals, faith-based and community-based organizations, and private sector companies. Your involvement is key to ensuring a healthy future for our children.
The Let’s Move! initiative has instituted various programs across the country to mobilize each of these sectors to become involved in solving the problem of childhood obesity nationwide. These programs, highlighted below, work in collaboration with the overall goals of Let’s Move! by offering solutions and ways that each sector that plays a role can start making changes around this issue. Let’s Move! Program Factsheet.
Let’s Move Cities and Towns
No city or town is the same, and each one needs its own approach for solving obesity. Let’s Move Cities and Towns engages communities by focusing on their unique ability to solve the obesity challenge on a local level.
It’s designed to encourage mayors and elected officials to adopt a long-term, sustainable, holistic approach to fighting childhood obesity. When elected officials sign up as a prospective Let’s Move City or Town, they choose to make changes in four areas over the next 12 months: Reduce the risk of obesity in early childhood, provide healthy food in schools, making healthy food affordable and accessible, and increase physical activity. Sign up your community today.
Chefs Move to Schools
Good nutrition at school is more important than ever. Over 31 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program, and over 11 million participate in the National School Breakfast Program. Chefs Move to Schools, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), matches chefs with school districts to help schools improve health and nutrition.
The chefs adopt a school and work closely with teachers, parents, school nutritionists and administrators. They teach new techniques and recipes for healthier meals that meet the schools’ dietary guidelines and budgets. And, they engage young people in learning about nutrition and making balanced and healthy choices. By creating healthy meals that are also delicious, chefs have a unique ability to make good nutrition fun and appealing.
An important component of Chefs Move to Schools is the HealthierUS School Challenge– a program that has spurred schools all across the country to raise their standards and transform classrooms and cafeterias into places where healthy eating and nutrition is learned and experienced. Schools that are doing the very best work to keep kids healthy will be recognized, and high-achieving schools will even receive monetary incentives. Visit the HealthierUS School Challenge website to sign up.
Resources:
- Chefs Move to Schools guide.
Let’s Move Faith and Communities
As trusted community members, faith-based and community-based organizations are critical partners in solving childhood obesity. Many lessons on healthy living and well-being are learned in faith- and community- based settings. Join Let’s Move Faith and Communities to inspire healthy eating, physical activity, and respond to hunger.
Resources:
Let’s Move Outside
Regular exercise in nature is proven to improve children’s physical and mental health. Outdoor activity helps kids maintain a healthy weight, boost their immunity and bone health, and lower stress. Let’s Move Outside, administered by the Department of Interior, was created to get kids and families to take advantage of American’s great outdoors-which abound in every city, town and community.
Let’s Move Outside Junior Rangers, a part of the Let’s Move Outside program, promotes healthy outdoor activities in 50 national parks across the country by highlighting existing junior ranger programs that have a strong physical activity component.
Visit the Let’s Move Outside web page for ideas on what to do, what to bring and where to go in the great outdoors.
Let’s Move! in the Clinic
Health care professionals directly impact children’s health. Each encounter is an opportunity to help children understand the importance of good nutrition and physical activity—from their earliest moments of life through adulthood. That’s why, by working together with children and their families in clinics, practices, homes, schools and neighborhoods, health care professionals can make a real difference in solving the problem of childhood obesity.
Visit our page for health care providers to find out what you can do, including how to print out our prescription for a healthy life to share with patients.
-article provided by www.letsmove.org
