In This Edition...

Leveraging the New WIC Food Packages to Improve Community Access to Healthy Food: A California Statewide Web Forum

Please join the California WIC Association, Strategic Alliance, and California Convergence on January 14th, 2009 (2:30-4:00 pm) for a web forum on the rollout of the new WIC food packages.  The new WIC food packages will make healthy choices easier and more affordable in low-income communities. This is an unprecedented opportunity for local advocates to work together in new ways to improve healthy food access for community residents and decrease health disparities. 

Opportunities through the new WIC food package include:

• Strengthening healthy food offerings at grocery and small stores in low-income communities
• Allowing the flexible use of Fruit & Vegetable vouchers at farmers markets and farm stands
• Aligning and strengthening community health messaging
• Encouraging local policies that support or protect breastfeeding

Please join us to learn more about the changes to the WIC food package and how you can partner with WIC efforts to advance healthy eating in your community.  Space is limited.  To reserve a spot please register by January 9th.  Click here to register. If you have further questions about the event please contact Margot Brown at Margot@preventioninstitute.org.

Latino Health Access’s Award-Winning Program Peso Saludable (Healthy Weight)

On December 9th, Latino Health Access (LHA) was honored to receive the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport gold medalist award of the year. The Governor’s Council award is given to a non-profit who is championing an effort to encourage families to engage in healthy life styles; this year LHA was recognized for its’ Peso Saludable (Healthy Weight) Program. Peso Saludable provides working families with a 7-week course curriculum focused on nutrition and physical fitness that recognizes the urban, financial and time limitations of many low-income working families in Orange County. Children and families meet twice a week to learn about food preparation, caloric intake, and labeling as well as learn exercise routines that motivate families to exercise together.

Attending the award ceremony were Kenny Rogers, Executive Director of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and Peter Vidmar, Vice President for the “Council” and Olympic gold medalist, who presented LHA with a ten-thousand dollar check through the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation.

Please join Strategic Alliance in congratulating Latino Health Access for it’s award-winning work surrounding nutrition and physical activity with communities in need.

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Food and Beverage Marketing to Children:

What Changes are Needed to Promote Healthy Eating Habits?

A new brief released by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examines the link between pervasive food and beverage marketing and its impact on the dietary patterns and health of children and adolescents.  The brief also describes national regulations to protect youth from deceptive marketing practices, outlines the changes that some food and beverage companies have made to offer healthier options and details what research is still needed to understand and limit the potential for food and beverage marketing to adversely impact young people’s health.

Highlights from this research demonstrate the need to provide critical analysis on youth-geared marketing and its effect on food and beverage choices of children and young adults. Researchers found that 46 percent of all youth-marketing expenditures are spent on television, and nearly all (98 percent) food advertisements viewed by children and 89 percent of advertisements viewed by adolescents were for products that were high in fat, sugar or sodium. The authors also found a correlation between higher exposure to advertising and greater consumption of advertised brands and energy-dense products categories, such as sugared breakfast cereals, soft drinks and products from fast-food restaurants.

The researchers concluded that more work needs to be done to create an environment that fully promotes healthy foods and beverages for children through sustained efforts from multiple sectors.

To download the report, please click here   

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IOM Review of National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs

On December 17th, The Institute of Medicine released Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements for National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs: Phase I, Proposed Approaches for Recommending Revisions, a technical report detailing the criteria and scientific background that the committee plans to use to redesign the meal pattern and nutrition standards for school meals. .    

The final report detailing the IOM recommendations for updating the meal pattern and nutrition standards will be released in October 2009.  The recommendations are intended to reflect new developments in nutrition science, increase the availability of key food groups in the school meal programs, and allow these programs to better meet the nutritional needs of children, foster healthy eating habits, and safeguard children’s health.

If you are interested in commenting on the approach described in the Phase I report, you can submit comments to the committee electronically through January 31, 2009 at the following address: FNBSchoolMeals@nas.edu

To find out more about the IOM review process in its entirety, please click here

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Due February 3, 2009 Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities Call for Proposals from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

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Upcoming Events

California Project LEAN Local Parent Engagement Trainings

January 12, 2009, Los Angeles, CA

For more information, call 916.552.9871

California Working Families Policy Summit -- 2009

January 13, 2009, Sacramento, CA

New Partners for Smart Growth

January 22-24, 2009, Albuquerque, NM

The Praxis Project: Learning Circle Series, 2009

Communicating to Advance Racial Justice, January 23-25, 2009, Washington, D.C.

Community Organizing: Building Toward Long-Term Change, March 13-15, 2009

Policy Advocacy: Creating Better Policies, May 29-31, 2009

The 2009 Food Stamp Forum

February 10, 2009, Sacramento, CA

2009 Childhood Obesity Conference: Creating Healthy Places for All Children

June 9-12, 2009, Los Angeles, CA

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Thanks for reading!  The Strategic Alliance is currently engaged in building a broad and diverse statewide membership.  If you were forwarded this e-mail and want to receive your own copy in the future, please click here or e-mail shakirah@preventioninstitute.org.  And if you’re already a member, please forward this message to your colleagues so we can continue to strengthen our coalition.  Thank you!

WHAT IS THE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE?

The Strategic Alliance is reframing the debate on nutrition and physical activity away from a focus solely on individual choice and lifestyle towards one of environmental influences and corporate and government responsibility. Current Steering Committee members are: California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit), California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA), California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA), California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, California Park and Recreation Society (CPRS), California Project LEAN, California WIC Association (CWA), Child Care Food Program Roundtable, Latino Health Access, Partnership for the Public’s Health, Prevention Institute, and Samuels & Associates.

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