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Reminders:
** The Shape Up Coalition Survey is still open. Go to
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=U5T6R06XN0S6gWQnWlxcyg_3d_3d and share your feedback!
*** The next Shape Up Coalition Meeting is Wednesday, March 12, from 2-3:30 at DCYF (1390 Market St., Suite 900, The Mint). It is always the 2nd Wednesday of the month, so mark your calendars and we look forward to seeing you there!
In this issue:
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- Study Suggests Spanish-Language TV Food Ads Contributing to Childhood Obesity
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1) Agriculture in a Warmer World (back to top)
What will happen to local farms as the effects of climate change become more pronounced, and what will it mean for Bay Area consumers? How will climate change impact food supply, food distribution, and food security around the world? Join CUESA as two researchers present their perspectives on these questions.
Presenters:
Dr. Michael Hanemann, Director of the California Climate Change Center at UC Berkeley and Chancellor's Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy
Dr. David Lobell, Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment
When: Thursday, February 28, 6:30 to 8:30 PM (reception with light
refreshments at 6:30, discussion at 7)
Where: Port Commission Hearing Room, 2nd floor of the Ferry Building, San Francisco
This event is free and open to the public. It is part one of a two-part series on global climate change and food. Stay tuned to www.cuesa.org for the announcement of part 2: Climate-Friendly Eating.
2) Salad Bar Video (back to top)
The first round of salad bar evaluations has been completed. Thanks to the help of volunteers and staff, we were able to evaluate 20 schools with salad bars. The next steps are to send the parent evaluation home and to conduct the student focus groups. We will notify the Coalition when the report is complete.
On a related note, here is a link to a short NPR report on salad bars in Los Angeles.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18948805
Dana Woldow is a parent volunteer and co-chair of the SFUSD Student
Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee. Her son, Max Schreiver, produced a video about San Francisco's salad bars:
http://youtube.com/resultssearch_query=san+francisco+salad+bars&search_type=
Max Schreiber is a 2007 graduate of Balboa High School in San Francisco, where he first became interested in making videos. As a student in Balboa's creative arts small learning community (called CAST), Max worked with the alumni association to make a history of Balboa video to be played at graduation. He also produced videos promoting the school's Grab n Go breakfast program, for the in-house Bal-TV station. He is currently a broadcast communications major at S.F. State.
3) HopeLab to Announce Ruckus Nation Winners - March 17, 2008 (back to top)
In 2007, HopeLab launched Ruckus Nation, an international online idea
competition to find cool new ideas for products that are fun and engaging enough to get kids moving. Hundreds of entries were received from 37 countries and 41 U.S.states, and contestants ranged in age from 6 to 82 years old.
On March 17, HopeLab will announce Ruckus Nation winners -- including a $50,000 grand prize! -- at the de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Some of the best ideas submitted to the competition will be on display at this one-of-a-kind event.
Ruckus Nation Grand Prize Event
Date: March 17, 2008
Time: 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Location: de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park - San Francisco
Cost: Free of charge!
Organizing a Group
The Ruckus Nation Grand Prize Event can be a great after school program, field trip, or club event. If you would like to bring a large group of students and transportation is an issue, please let us know; we want work with you. Imagine youth you work with being inspired by ideas and stories from around the world.
Visit us at www.ruckusnation.com/event.html for more information. And
please don't hesitate to contact Liz Song by PHONE (650.569.5923) or EMAIL (lsong@hopelab.org) with any questions.
4) Soda Free Summer Update (back to top)
Members of the Soda Free Summer Steering Committee met with Kaiser Regional to discuss funding a large regional launch across six bay area counties. While Kaiser Regional is highly interested in our proposal, the turnaround time (should we be awarded the grant) would not be soon enough to fund the regional launch that we had in mind. Because of the short timeframe and delay in funds, we will hold the regional launch next summer. This year, jurisdictions will be doing individual launches for each county in May, but work together for a coordinated media plan.
We hope to view this year as a pilot program where we lay the groundwork and generate excitement and press about the campaign in each county, and then proceed with the regional launch the summer of 2009. At the upcoming BANPAC (Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative) meeting on March 12th, we will be presenting the framework for a successful campaign, the components of the media plan, and provide a planning map to help guide each county towards a successful campaign.
If you are interested in helping to plan the SF launch and activities or having your site become Soda Free by disseminating Sugar Savvy trainings, information and commitment cards, please let us know! Email marianne.szeto@sfdph.org to get involved.
5) Stadium to Stadium (back to top)
Mark your calendars! Stadium to Stadium has moved to June 21, 2008.
Visit www.stadiumtostadium.com for more details and to register online! To volunteer at Stadium to Stadium, contact Eugene at
eugene.flannery@sfgov.org.
6) Study Suggests Spanish-Language TV Food Ads Contributing to Childhood Obesity (back to top)
Feb 20, 2008
A study in the journal Pediatrics released online on Tuesday suggests that the substantial number of advertisements for fast food on Spanish-language television stations may be contributing to the rising obesity epidemic among Latino youth, Reuters reports. Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, researchers reviewed 60 hours of programming airing on the popular Spanish-language channels Telemundo and Univision between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., when children are most likely to watch television. The stations, which are watched by 99 percent and 93 percent of Latino households, respectively, aired an average of two or three food commercials every hour, and one-third of those food advertisements targeted children. According to lead researcher Dr. Darcy Thompson of Johns Hopkins Children's Center, nearly half of all food commercials promoted fast food, and more than half of all beverage commercials featured soda and other sugary drinks. Given their findings, the researchers recommend limiting children's television viewing to two hours or less daily and suggest that children under two years of age not watch any television. In addition, the researchers suggest that pediatricians caring for Latino children recognize their patients' exposure to food advertisements and call on public health officials to lobby for limits on food advertising that targets children (Reuters, 2/19/08; Johns Hopkins University release, 2/18/08).
7) Mounting Evidence Suggests Link Between P.E. and Educational Achievement (back to top)
Feb 22, 2008
A growing body of evidence supports a connection between physical activity and academic achievement, Education Weekreports. A study published last year in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology suggests that children who performed well on two measures of physical fitness tended to score higher on state reading and math exams, regardless of gender or socioeconomic status. A study in the December 2007 Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, meanwhile, followed 163 Augusta, Ga., schoolchildren and found that those who exercised for 40 minutes daily demonstrated the greatest improvements in cognitive function, with gains roughly twice as large as children who exercised for only 20 minutes daily. In 2004, schools in Naperville, Ill., implemented "learning readiness" P.E. classes for students who had received low scores on certain academic tests. Under the program, roughly a dozen students struggling with reading participated in early-morning P.E. sessions and attended a specialized literacy class. After one semester, children participating in the program showed 1.34 year's of growth on standardized reading tests, compared with seven-tenths of a year's growth among struggling students who attended only literacy classes. In 2005, a similar program helped district students boost their math scores by 20.4 percent, while a control group saw just a 3.87 percent improvement. The following year, however, educators scheduled the learning readiness P.E. class six hours before the specialized academic class and saw much smaller academic gains, leading guidance counselors to recommend that all students schedule their most difficult courses directly after P.E. Although researchers remain unsure about how exercise optimizes learning, Dr. John J. Ratey of Harvard University Medical School notes that not all types of P.E. programs produce equal benefits. Naperville schools, for instance, have instituted a "new P.E." philosophy, which promotes healthy lifestyle lessons rather than traditional sport-specific skills. Education Week notes that Kansas City, Mo.-based PE4Life is currently a strong proponent of the new P.E. philosophy, offering training to teachers and encouraging educators across the country to adopt the strategies (Viadero, Education Week, 2/12/08 [registration required]).
