As I sat around the dinner table with my family recently, my son went into great detail about this food he had at school. He couldn’t remember the name, but he said it was kind of like a raw potato and also similar to an apple. He explained how they were given fresh lime to squeeze on it as a flavor enhancer. Totally perplexed, I got up to get the calendar from school to learn he had been sampling jicama. Jicama is just one of the many fruits and vegetables he and his peers are eating as part of the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) began through the Farm and Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. The purpose was to determine the best ways to get more fruit and vegetables consumed in the schools. The program was authorized as a pilot in only 4 states, but the popularity of the program added new states almost every year and today all 50 states are participating. The FFVP is provided to select schools through grants administered through the State Departments of Education. My son’s school, College Hill Elementary in Wichita, KS was fortunate enough to receive the grant this year. They have been seeing fantastic results.

It’s no secret that a strong battle is being fought in order to increase the quality of our school lunches and to teach our children what healthy eating looks like. As the elementary students at College Hill have been introduced to these fruits and vegetables, good results have been shown.

“I think most of the staff has been pleasantly surprised at how willingly the kids have at least tasted everything. I’m sure that we are giving quite a few of these kids an experience with some types of foods that they would never have in their lifetime,” said Karla Stenzel, physical education teacher and the facilitator of the FFVP.

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It might be Friday, but we stayed in tonight. We participated in Leah Segedie’s Twitter chat, #Ashamed, to raise awareness for the Georgia advertising campaign by Strong4Life attempting to curb the rampant childhood obesity epidemic in the state. If we’d been at the bar like everyone else celebrating TGIF it would have been standing room only. According to Leah there were 544 people tweeting on #Ashamed tonight. “I worked harder on that party than any I’ve ever done,” Leah told us shortly after the chat ended.

To show just how powerful social media is, or maybe how powerful Leah Segedie at BookieBoo and Mamavation is, this Twitter chat was organized practically over night and had a lot of interest, as that count of 544 shows. Additionally, Leah shared other stats, like 13 million impressions and 4859 tweets posted in the one-hour chat.

Leah told us she had two goals for #Ashamed. “First, to petition Strong 4 Life to take the billboards down. Second, to talk about the issue in a way that’s not shameful and gets the word out.” The public outcry over this campaign has been loud enough that some have already been taken down. The hope is that tonight’s nearly 600 voices on Twitter will remove them from the remaining areas, like Atlanta.

“Just take the damn things down,” Leah shouted. “It’s over and done with.”
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Many advocates fighting to end childhood obesity are also fighting to get vending machines out of our kids’ schools. The machines are filled with unhealthy, low-nutrient foods and soda. Many people want to see them kicked out of the schools for good. However, Utah schools may have the one vending machine advocates may start fighting to get in their own schools.

Rose Park Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah has welcomed a new addition to its halls. Thanks to the LiVe public service program, Intermountain Healthcare has installed a fake, talking vending machine. The vending machine looks like any other, full of sweet and salty treats. The difference is that the snacks are fake and the machine doesn’t take money. When the children select an item the machine dispenses a morsel of healthy information.

“I’m a vending machine and can’t move without someone’s help,” a cartoon-like voice says when a student chooses a Lava Cake. “Keep buying food like this and we’ll have that in common.”

The young elementary students are having fun with the machine, even if they are fooled at first. Some of the children have tried to dislodged the faux treats before they realize the game. Older students have taken younger children to the machine to show them how it works and to hear what it might say.

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This spring, Cary Williams-Nunez and her husband Angelo Nunez will hit the road to tour schools in ten cities for their Knocking Out Obesity Tour. In its second year, it’s something that Cary worked hard to bring to life.

It was initially something she thought about in 2007 and took a few years to put all the pieces in place to make it happen. She is a boxing star in her own right, and co-owns Primetime Boxing with her husband. They put down their gloves and last year turned some of their focus to being part of the solution in the childhood obesity epidemic by completing their first Knocking Out Obesity tour.

This spring, The Nunez’s Knocking Out Obesity tour will visit another ten cities, including three elementaries and seven middle schools. Their stops will include Chicago, Buffalo, Birmingham, New Orleans, four cities in Texas, and DC, where she’s hoping to score some face time with Mrs. Obama.

They start by looking at the list of top 25 fattest cities, that publishes annually, and then select 10 cities to visit. Then, they choose one school in each city. They primarily visit middle schools, with some elementary, and try to schedule with their PE classes. The response?
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There have been a couple of cases in the news of social services moving children to live with family members after parents have seemingly ignored doctor orders to help the child lose weight for health reasons, not just in the United States but in Scotland and Canada as well. Nutrition and a healthier environment is also an argument used to determine custody and/or primary residence for a child. The courts are paying attention to the childhood obesity crisis in the United States, which can cause physical and emotional issues for children that extend into adulthood. It is certainly a controversial and inflammatory topic for many.

I admit to having high nutritional standards and being pretty opinionated about what the children in my family are fed. There are certain ingredients that can be considered contraband in my house. As a therapist specializing in adoption, particularly children from hard places, I am familiar with how attention to diet can greatly impact behavior and symptoms of several disorders including ADHD, autism, Aspberger’s, and depression. I think nutrition is vitally important to physical and mental health. In the same way, as a therapist specializing in adoption, I never take separating a child from his or her family lightly. While there are times it is necessary for the health and safety of a child, and times it is outside of anyone’s control, it will have a lasting impact on the child.
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