Report from White House Childhood Obesity Meeting
Posted by Janet McLaughlin on Thursday, April 15, 2010
Last Friday, I was lucky to be one of approximately 100 guests of the President’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity, called to the White House to share ideas and insights on how to “solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation,” the goal of the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign.
Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Chair of the Task Force, owes a report to the President by May 9 – and she began the meeting by letting us know how we would be helping with that assignment. We heard from a number of speakers, including the First Lady, to set the context for an afternoon spent in smaller groups deciding upon three to five key recommendations for each pillar of the Let’s Move campaign:
- healthy choices
- healthy schools
- physical activity, and
- access to healthy affordable food.
I joined the discussion focused on “accessing healthy and affordable foods,” led by USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. Our group included representatives of anti-hunger groups, public health associations, food companies, grocery stores, elected officials, Indian nations, universities, and health care institutions. And while each person had a few points that he or she wanted to make, the messages were remarkably consistent and followed three themes:
Demand. We need to increase the purchasing power for low-income families so they don’t have to choose between healthy foods and other priorities. This means greater enrollment in SNAP, WIC, and Child Nutrition Programs like school breakfast and summer meals. As the director of Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®, I was glad to hear speaker after speaker emphasize the need to pair this with culturally relevant education on how to make healthy choices and prepare healthy foods.
Supply. Our participant group was unanimous in its support for initiatives like the new federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which provides funds to increase the amount fresh foods offered in underserved communities. Community-based solutions like urban agriculture or mobile markets were highlighted while systems-based issues like agriculture subsidies were raised more tentatively as ways to increase availability and lower the price point on healthy foods. One somewhat surprising issue raised repeatedly was breastfeeding, which has proven associations with preventing children from being overweight. You might think that it couldn’t get more “accessible” and “affordable” than breastfeeding, but advocates in the room highlighted that supporting mothers in starting and maintaining breastfeeding as critical to ensuring the supply of mothers’ milk for their babies.
Methodology. The group asked for, perhaps even insisted on, a collaborative approach that allows for local innovation and flexibility. Our group highlighted the importance of raising the profile of this issue in each community and state in constructive ways through task forces and creative ways like social marketing campaigns. And we agreed that efforts should focus where it matters most—on children under five, in low-income communities, on evidence-based interventions, and on the most cost-effective measures.
I was struck and inspired throughout the meeting by the constructive energy in the room – and the leading roles that women were playing in this arena. During the day we heard from Melody Barnes; Kathleen Merrigan; Surgeon General Regina Benjamin; Nancy DeParle, head of the White House Office on Health Reform; and, of course, the First Lady. All of these women with smarts, passion, and good humor taking charge to ensure a healthy future for our kids – sign me up and count me in!
April 15, 2010 | 1 comment(s) | Tags: Cooking Matters, event, let's move, obesity, Operation Frontline, white house
Comments
1 reader comment so far.
I love what you are doing. We have to start educating everyone about nutrition. This should start in pre-school. When I look at my extended family and see how they eat and how they feed their family, it is shocking. They are not poor uneducated people. Nearly everyone a college graduate. It's just bad habits, Big Macs for dinner, soda with every meal!
Posted by Diane Hopkins on April 16, 2010
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