Washington, D.C., September 27, 2005 – Calling childhood obesity a “problem of epic proportions,” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) today applauded attendees at the Healthy Schools Summit 2005 for their grassroots efforts to improve nutrition and physical activity in the nation’s schools. “This is a serious challenge that demands a serious response,” Frist said.
The Healthy Schools Summit is a gathering of 600 local leaders from all 50 states and the District of Columbia who are part of Action for Healthy Kids, a non-profit organization addressing the epidemic of overweight, undernourished and sedentary youth by focusing on changes at school. First Lady Mrs. Laura Bush is honorary chair of the Summit.
“The federal government can and must support your work, recognize excellence, and encourage proven strategies to address childhood obesity,” Frist told the group. “The government can’t be at every dinner table in America. It can’t be on the sidelines of every grade school gym. That’s why we need you. We need actions that can be implemented in every community in the country,” he said.
Frist cited estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that one out of every three children born in America in 2000 will develop diabetes. The problem is even worse in minority communities, he said. “Half of the African-American and Hispanic babies born in 2000 will be afflicted (by diabetes) in their lifetime. That’s a disease for which there is no cure, it’s irreversible. And it’s compounded by a host of chronic ailments – kidney disease, heart disease, blindness,” Frist said.
U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) also lauded the Summit attendees and urged them to continue pushing for changes in schools across the country. “We need to return to the days when our public schools were special places, commercial-free zones that fed our children nutritious food, and saw to it that recess and physical education were a part of every school day. Schools should be a sanctuary, not just another marketplace hawking junk food and sugary sodas,” Harkin said.
Harkin cited a federal requirement that all schools participating in the National School Lunch program develop and implement a local school wellness policy as “the real sleeper success story of last year’s child nutrition reauthorization act.”
“Local wellness policies have the potential to transform the way schools promote child health,” Harkin said. But the success of these policies is “going to depend on the energy, activism, and outspokenness of people in their local communities. I hope you will be working with your own school districts to enact commonsense local wellness policies that protect the health and nutrition of our nation’s children,” he said.
Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General and founding chair of Action for Healthy Kids, said he was gratified by the increased national focus on the problem of childhood obesity that has occurred in the three years since the establishment of Action for Healthy Kids at the first Healthy Schools Summit in 2002.
“But now, our real work is just beginning,” Satcher said. He challenged the state team delegates to focus on school wellness policies as an “important opportunity to demonstrate your leadership and expertise as you help states and schools with developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating these new policies.”
Satcher also discussed a new after-school program developed by Action for Healthy Kids in partnership with the National Football League. “This exciting new program, ReCharge, is the first nationally distributed after-school program that fully integrates nutrition and physical activity through team-based strategies,” Satcher said. “It is designed for youth in grades 3-6 and uses fun football analogies and coaches children on energy-in and energy-out. I encourage you to bring this after-school program to the attention of schools and community centers so that more students can have opportunities for safe physical activity and healthful snacks after school.”
The Healthy Schools Summit continues Wednesday, September 28, at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel. Speakers include U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Director Duane Alexander, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta, School Nutrition Association President Ruth Jonen, and Action for Healthy Kids Chairman William Potts-Datema.
A complete program agenda for the Healthy Schools Summit 2005 can be found on the Action for Healthy Kids Web site, www.actionforhealthykids.org.
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About Action for Healthy Kids
Action for Healthy Kids is the only national, non-profit organization specifically addressing the epidemic of overweight, undernourished and sedentary youth by focusing on changes at school. Action for Healthy Kids is a public-private partnership of more than 50 national organizations and government agencies representing education, health, fitness and nutrition, which support the efforts of 51 State Teams (including all states and D.C.) made up of over 5,000 volunteers.
Action for Healthy Kids was created in response to the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity, which identified the school environment as one of five key sites of change. Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher is the founding chair of Action for Healthy Kids.
AFHK Media Contact:
Frances Cox
The Fratelli Group
202-822-9491