06.01.10
The Childhood Obesity Task Force has unveiled an action plan: “Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation.” Recommendations focus on four priority areas, which also form the pillars of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign: empowering parents and caregivers; providing healthy food in schools; improving access to healthy, affordable foods; and increasing physical activity. “For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks and measureable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family and one community at a time,” said Ms. Obama. “We want to marshal every resource—public and private sector, mayors and governors, parents and educators, business owners and healthcare providers, coaches and athletes—to ensure that we are providing each and every child the happy, healthy future they deserve.”
In February, Ms. Obama launched the Let’s Move! campaign to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. As part of this effort, President Barack Obama established the Task Force on Childhood Obesity to develop and implement an interagency plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines an action plan to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation. The action plan defines solving the problem of childhood obesity in a generation as returning to a childhood obesity rate of just 5% by 2030, which was the rate before childhood obesity first began to rise in the late 1970s.
In total, the report presents a series of 70 specific recommendations. Some of these include: Getting children a healthy start on life, with good prenatal care for their parents; empowering parents and caregivers with simpler, more actionable messages about nutritional choices based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans; providing healthy food in schools through improvements in federally-supported school lunches and breakfasts; improving access to healthy, affordable food by eliminating “food deserts” in urban and rural America; and getting children more physically active through quality physical education, recess and other opportunities in and after school.
In February, Ms. Obama launched the Let’s Move! campaign to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. As part of this effort, President Barack Obama established the Task Force on Childhood Obesity to develop and implement an interagency plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines an action plan to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation. The action plan defines solving the problem of childhood obesity in a generation as returning to a childhood obesity rate of just 5% by 2030, which was the rate before childhood obesity first began to rise in the late 1970s.
In total, the report presents a series of 70 specific recommendations. Some of these include: Getting children a healthy start on life, with good prenatal care for their parents; empowering parents and caregivers with simpler, more actionable messages about nutritional choices based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans; providing healthy food in schools through improvements in federally-supported school lunches and breakfasts; improving access to healthy, affordable food by eliminating “food deserts” in urban and rural America; and getting children more physically active through quality physical education, recess and other opportunities in and after school.