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Combating Childhood Obesity in Corpus Christi |
Part of a nationwide federal initiative
(CORPUS CHRISTI, TX) At a recent meeting of mayors from across the U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama gave a speech calling on mayors from across the country to help her combat childhood obesity.
The First Lady’s attention to this issue couldn’t have come soon enough. According to a 2009 study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 16.3% of children and adolescents between the ages of two and 19 are obese, and 31.0% were either overweight or at risk of becoming so. In Corpus Christi, these numbers are higher. According to the Nueces County 2004 survey, 23% of children are obese and 18.6% are overweight. Although it’s unfortunate when any child is overweight, at these levels, our nation is looking at catastrophic consequences in 20-30 years if we don’t take action immediately to address the root causes of childhood obesity.
In her speech, the First Lady outlined how the removal of play from children’s lives has seriously reduced the amount of physical activity they get every day, and how that play deficit was hurting both children and communities. She then went on to call on all mayors to work together with different parties to ensure that children get enough wholesome food and physical activity to stay healthy.
Corpus Christi is already hard at work to get its kids on the path to a healthy lifestyle. In 2009, Corpus Christi received recognition as a Playful City USA community for the first time in recognition of our initiative(s). Playful City USA is a national program that gets kids active and healthy through play by providing cities with best practices and tools that bring public and private sectors together and engage citizens. Playful City USA is a program created by KaBOOM!, the national non-profit that makes children and communities healthier by creating great places to play.
According to a recent Harris Interactive study, in other parts of the nation, 59% of parents and 69% of low-income parents report there is no playground in their neighborhood, but in Corpus Christi, we earned our Playful City USA title by ensuring that our children have the quality time and space they need to play every day, which helps them stay active, happy and healthy.
Corpus Christi Parks & Recreation Department initiatives included the following:
1) Approximately 100 youth from the Latchkey Program participated in the Säjai® Wise Kids Program. This program offered the children opportunities to explore the world of nature while teaching them about the importance of eating right and being physically active.
2) Youth from the Coles Recreation Center were provided with 30 ziplock snack bags (examples: poptarts, crackers, cereal) each week from the Corpus Christi Food Bank’s Back Pack Program throughout the school year 2009–2010. The intent of this program was to have snack bags distributed every Friday for the children to snack on during the weekends.
3) Over 2,000 children enrolled in the Latchkey After School Program participated in the Healthy Active Early Years Grant program from the Coastal Bend Community Foundation’s Diabetes Initiative. This program which included all 36 Latchkey Program sites was offered in conjunction with the Education Service Center. The purpose was to stress to the children the importance of eating healthy and to get them outdoors to exercise. At the conclusion of this program, all sites received $100 worth of playground equipment.
Cities across the nation will be looking at programs such as ours to replicate as they search for solutions to their childhood obesity problems. But these programs alone can’t protect all our children. We need to work together on this issue, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us if we’re going to save this generation of children. We would like to take this opportunity to pass the First Lady’s challenge along to everyone in our community. Does your block have space for a public playground or a vegetable garden? Can you create a “walking schoolbus” program for the kids in your neighborhood? Are the streets near your house safe for kids to bike? There are hundreds of playful ways to help all the children of Corpus Christi be healthier, and we would like to hear them.
For more information about the programs and services offered by the Corpus Christi Parks & Recreation Department, please visit www.ccparkandrec.com. We invite you to Live. Learn. Play!
(Released 4-1-10)
ONLINE RELATED RESOURCES:
www.letsmove.gov
Playful City USA
