She looks like she doesn't miss many meals.
Posted on 03/17/2006 10:28:06 PM PST by nickcarraway
There was a big "Coca-Cola" sign on the refrigerator, but all it held was bottled water and juice. The menu offered sandwiches on eight-grain bread. The lunch ladies were pushing salad.
The cafeteria at the William E. Cottle Elementary School has undergone a nutritious change this year, and Congresswoman Nita Lowey chose it as the setting Friday for an announcement of legislation aimed at battling obesity in children.
"The exploding rate of obesity is one of the most serious health issues our nation faces," said Lowey, a Democrat who represents parts of Westchester and Rockland counties. She said the health problems caused by obesity, such as heart attacks, diabetes and asthma, cost the nation $117 billion a year.
Her Stop Obesity in Schools Act would provide federal funding to local school districts to develop nutrition policies, as the Cottle school has done. It would also increase funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so the CDC could give technical assistance and measure the policies' effectiveness.
Lowey said she did not yet know what the bill would cost taxpayers, but added, "What's more fiscally conservative than attacking these health care costs?"
She said that during a recent trip the Walt Disney World with some of her grandchildren, she noticed that "dozens of people" were being pushed through the parks in wheelchairs _ "not because they were injured or sick but they just couldn't walk because they were obese."
Mary Ann McCann, one of the school's food workers, said soda and doughnuts had been ousted from the cafeteria, which serves kindergartners through fifth-graders in the Tuckahoe school district, "and we try to get the kids to take the fruit, the vegetables, the salad. "
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
It is getting harder and harder to find places for them to run and play too.
>>>Sounds like some liberal screwed things up over there.
That is an understatement.
Now that it is screwed up....in comes the UN initiative of Healthy People 2010 to solve all this.
BTW, that is what these school nutrition programs are part of. Healthy People 2010. Welcome to UN partnership.
I don't get it, they have parks but kids have to get a permit everyday if they want to use the park? WTF? something ain't right, how long has it been like that?
The kids can't get a permit to use the fields in the park. It has to be applied for through township sports only. I.E., coach reserved.
The only areas kids can play in parks is where playground equipment is. No more fields for spontaneous sports.
The schools in our town of 65 thousand have vast areas around them. We had baseball backstops, basketball courts and a regular marked trail for running laps.
And YES, running a lap could be a punishment, lol, and no one got sued over it. This was in the mid 80's so times have changed but our schools still have all that land.
We used to have the Presidential Physical Fitness Awards twice a year. They were very hard and each child was actually judged with a score on how they did in each thing!
Horror of horrors, most of the kids really enjoyed it and tried hard to do well.
wow, i'd move if i had youngsters.
She looks like she doesn't miss many meals.
Your state is still red.
Wait until Healthy People gets implemented.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hphome.htm
They have plans for your physical fitness. And you will be catalogued in the database.
UN Partnership.
We still have oldsters here. Family.
in elementary school we had something similar to that, we were
very competitive in athletics even the kids that were "nerdy" or the few that were "heavy" they all tried hard. makes me wonder the state the kids are in today.
how old are you kids? get them involved in pee wee leagues thats just about all you can do, and the coaches from there can help you out.
They are on sports. We are assistant coaches. I was referencing the good old days when you left the house and kids spontaneously played.
oh good, i was worried about your kids at least they are getting to play. Thats sad how that area is policing its parks, seems to be counter productive.
That's what confused me about the headline, and then the article..
There are already state health guidelines ( actually requirements ) that all state funded public schools are supposed to follow for school menus..
I'm not sure when or where the schools were given the authority to start allowing soda and junk food vending machines in the public schools..
Sounds to me like the states have dropped the ball on proper supervision of their various school districts..
I don't know if anybody looks at what the nutrition value of school lunches are, but I see a lot of bread and sweets, instead of meat and vegetables.
We have schools in Tennessee that won't install soap dispensers because "they make a mess". And don't have facilities for kids to wash their hands before lunch.
I think ventilation systems in schools should be looked at to stop disease spread and again with the hygiene.
It is a little scary to let the schools think about nutrition when the government has pushed the food pyramid for years and contributed to obesity. But I think a lot of school lunches are worse than the pyramid. I have a hard time believing that someone looking at nutrition wouldn't improve school lunches instead of making them worse.
You're right. Add, to many schools are offering to many high carbohydrate and sugary foods to children, and not enough exercise. In the long haul, not only will there be more obesity, but generations of type II diabetes.
Food for thought. I was once told by a doctor, that not to many obese people are seen in old age homes, but, most are frail and thin looking.
I bookmarked your link to read later, thanks.
You're right ET, even the heavy or un-athletic kids would try hard and it was a source of pride just to complete all of the tests.
Presidential Physical Fitness was done in elementary school, third through 5th graders as I remember.
And 'hey' - we actually let them play 'dodgeball' occasionally!!
Shoot, there were coke machines and candy bar machines in the schools I went to, but we had PE every day and we walked a lot and rode bikes.
All of the Gameboys, X-Box's, Nintendo, etc have kept kids inside after school instead of playing.
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