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Today we're tipping our lids toward Gillette, Wyoming, where the Healthy Kids After School Program has overweight kids exercising like mad and learning healthy eating habits. Mattthew DeVries, age 8, is one of the kids enrolled in the program, and he freely admits, "I have an eating problem," he says, pointing to his stomach. "I eat too much."
DeVries lists his favorite foods: pizza, brownies, caramel apples and fries.
The program is only open to those who are overweight, an intentional segregation on the part of the organizers to help kids feel comfortable. Competition from smaller, more athletic classmates would likely inhibit participation by the overweight students. A local pediatrician, David Fall, helped launch the program, enlisting a personal trainer, a social worker and a community recreation employee to come up with the idea of what to tell those children who are already overweight, easily identified in Fall's medical exam rooms. Children participating in the program walk from their school to the local gym, and exercise for more than an hour using fun activities and exercise equipment to keep them engaged.
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Check out Stonyfield's Good2Go program, designed as a before school breakfast and activities program to keep kids moving and eating healthy.
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We stormed the schools of New York City on Tuesday this week with special events announcing the launch of seven healthy vending machines. Stonyfield is providing the machines free of charge to the schools. The machines are stocked with organic and all-natural snacks that were chosen specifically by the students in a taste-testing event. In addition to our own Smoothies, the machines are stocked with products from Newman's Own Organics, Kettle Foods, Stacy's Chips, Silk, Clif Bar, Organic Valley Family of Farms and United Natural Foods, Inc.—which have all discounted their products specifically for this program. Prices range from .50 to $1.50.
The New York schools participating in this most recent healthy vending adventure are: Trevor Day School, Manhattan; Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School, Brooklyn; Martin Luther High School, Queens; Commack Middle and High Schools, Commack, Long Island; and Eastport-South Manor Central Middle and High Schools, Manorville, Long Island.
Our festivities centered around Trevor Day School and, after a brief ceremony, the crush was on as students vied to be the first to get their hands on one of the vending machine products. They pulled crumpled dollar bills out of their jeans pockets, each wanting to be the first to purchase a healthy snack. Choruses of “I love that stuff,” and “Those are so good” echoed throughout the auditorium. It was exciting to see and hear their enthusiasm!
"At Trevor Day, we really want our students to be fit-both mentally and physically," said Pamela Clarke, Head of School. "This means exercising, eating properly and learning the rudiments of life-long health. The Stonyfield Farm program will take us a step closer to success."
Clarke welcomed event attendees, then several involved students spoke. Kellen Braddock, a senior student and a vegetarian, spoke about the food choices she makes and is happy to have this alternative to junk food at her school. Another student, sophomore Zack Lasry, described how his athletic experiences lead him to view food as fuel. He knows the better the food he eats, the more it can enhance his performance on the field and the court.
Above: Students Kellen Braddock and Zack Lasry addressed their peers.
Dr. Philip Landrigan from Mount Sinai School of Medicine told the group a frightening statistic – 41 percent of all 5-year-olds entering kindergarten in the five burrows of New York are considered obese! Time to stem that rising tide!
Stonyfield Farm’s healthy vending machines are now in 10 states. Almost 1,000 schools have contacted us to get a machine of their own. For more information on how that works, go here.
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We were struck by this comment, in an article about the healthy vending machine trend in public schools across the nation—it points out the competition school food services face when school districts allow junk food dispensing machines to be easily accessed by students. What chance does a potentially healthy meal in the cafeteria line have up against the kind of junk that has traditionally been offered in machines? In San Diego County, nutrition services director Enid Hohn said in many school districts, nationally, students can get candy or soft drinks from the vending machines and buy doughnuts, sodas, chips and cookies from school stores. Plus, school fundraising campaigns often put large candy bars and cookie dough in the hallways for anyone with the cash. "If I'm selling healthy stuff in the lunch line, and the kids can walk 10 feet and buy three fresh-baked cookies for a buck from the school store, that's where they will spend their money," Hohn said. "It's ridiculous."
We’d love to hear about the food setup in your school. Are vending machines always available? Are they filled with junk? Do you have a school store selling cookies and candy? Has the cafeteria made an effort to offer nutritional fare?
Write us with your stories using the "comment" feature below.
Stonyfield Farm has a healthy vending machine program. New machines were just installed in some New York City schools. Look for news about that early next week here in Creating Healthy Kids.
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In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, they’re pulling out all the stops to get families thinking about healthier eating and to curb the growing rates of obese and overweight children there in a program called the Growing Healthy Initiative. Spurred on by the statistics that are becoming all to familiar, the entire community is getting involved—two local grocery store chains are placing yellow, smiley-faced stickers on food throughout their stores, indicating which are the healthiest choices; the schools are posting nutritional information around their buildings; television and radio will show the group’s ads; and they’re maybe even taking a look at the portion sizes served in Sioux Falls’ area restaurants. The initiative gets a little incentive from such statements as these, from a local family practice physician: "I've been in family practice for 35 years, and I never during that time - I retired in June of 2000 - I never treated one case of Type II diabetes in children," said Dr. Jerry Walton, president of the executive committee for GHI, who joins his colleagues who have noticed a dramatic rise in Type II diabetes in the past five years. We tip our lids to the Sioux Falls community!
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This week we're excited to be bringing our Stonyfield Farm healthy vending machines to some schools in the heart of New York City. Sure, we've launched these machines before--in places like California and New Hampshire, Boston, Pennsylvania, and Chicago--so now it's time for us to hit the big time!
Seven schools get the new machines this month, starting with a big whoop-tee-do tomorrow at Trevor Day School at West 88th Street.
The machines are just one way we try to combat the rising rates of childhood obesity, with the idea that just maybe having access to junk food in school vending machines contributes to that problem. According to the New York Department of Health, 24 percent of New York school children in kindergarten through grade 5 are overweight. Almost 30 percent of New York City high school students are overweight or are at risk of overweight.
Each item selected for the machine has gone through three rigorous tests – meeting either local nutritional standards or, in their absence, California-SB 19 guidelines; being reasonable in cost; and passing student taste tests.
Tune in later this week and we'll give you an update on how things went in New York City!
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Halloween's coming! Send us your "Baby/Toddler in Costume" photo (JPEG, digital files only please) for a mini-contest here in the Baby Babble Blog. We'll send a "Blogging" bib to the Best Costume winner, who will be chosen totally at random by the employees of Stonyfield Farm. Send photo via email, along with baby's name, baby's age, and parent name and town to: chalvorson@stonyfield.com. You must be a subscriber to Baby Babble to win. Deadline, Oct. 30. We'll post the winner on Halloween, of course!
There's a link between teenagers who are overweight and those who are depressed. It seems to be that overweight teenagers who have been teased or bullied about their weight are more likely to be depressed, and overweight girls are more likely to be depressed than overweight boys. So says a Swedish study.
Obese teens reported experiencing more symptoms of depression than their normal-weight or overweight peers and had a higher risk of depression, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers commented that dealing with obesity in teenagers also means dealing with the psycho-social environment in which these teenagers are living.
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At a conference this week, researchers presented evidence of what we all probably thought was true--Americans, including the youngest of children, will eat what they have in front of them. Two studies were presented at The Obesity Society on Wednesday. In a Baylor College of Medicine study, children ages 2 to 9 were served a dinner with various portion sizes--just the right amount served directly to them; twice as much as they needed served directly to them; and twice as much as they needed available for them to serve themselves.
Researchers found that the kids ate more than they needed if too much food was already on their plate and less than the full amount if they were served an appropriate size. They also took less if they had to serve themselves. The advice from a researcher? "Serve small portions to small eaters and let kids participate in serving themselves," says Jennifer Orlet Fisher, an assistant professor in Baylor's pediatrics department. "Let young children take the lead in deciding how much to eat."
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A tiny study in Scotland, though tiny, turned up an interesting idea to ponder: Do overweight kids really care that they are overweight?
One would think they would be lacking in self-esteem, tired of being picked on, worried or...something. But, when checking the attitudes of some overweight or obese teens age 13 to 14, Scotland researchers concluded that "acceptance of body size and shape was common amongst the overweight and obese teenagers interviewed."
Researchers also found that the girls were not "striving for thinness," as one might think. Further, they said, "Many of the teenagers were dismissive of others’ attempts to lose weight, regardless of their size, with most reporting that body size is not important."
Researchers didn't recommend any course of action as a result of this study, but said they thought the findings should help inform future discussion of teen obesity issues.
What do you think? Is this particular to Scotland? Do the teens you know who are overweight appear unconcerned? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Use the comment box below.
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Just as some predicted when the "Food Pyramid" was redone earlier this year, "whole grains" has become the new buzz word, popping up on all sorts of food packages. Unfortunately, what the Food and Drug Administration means by whole grains and what they actually are in a food product might be two different things. But, we may start seeing some clarification on food labels in the near future. The FDA says it is working on defining whole grains on food labels, according to a Washington Post article. In the meantime, some food product manufacturers are already adorning their packages with voluntary labels showing percentages of whole grains in their products.
Whole grains can be an acquired taste for kids. In this same article, a researcher tested pizza made with varying levels of whole grains:
At the University of Minnesota, associate professor of nutrition and food sciences Len Marquart compared the palatability of pizzas made with varying percentages of whole-wheat flour, whole-wheat white flour and traditional processed white flour. During the two-month study, he fed 600 children pizza for lunch once a week. The youngsters, who range in age from first to sixth graders, consumed 75 percent of the pizza made with either whole-wheat white flour or refined white flour, but only about 30 percent of the pizza made with regular whole-wheat dough. His next step: a federally funded nine-month study to examine the best way to introduce dinner rolls and hamburger buns made with traditional whole wheat and with white whole wheat.
Will the kids you know eat whole wheat products? Write us using the comment box below.
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Check out "Moo"-vie News today in The Bovine Bugle, where Myrtle gets to know her first baby calf, and then the herd comes to meet the new arrival!
Food dangers, that is? The time between school and home can be a dangerous time for kids to over-eat. They walk passed places that sell junk food and they're hungry and they have money. It's a dangerous mix. Pizza, ice cream, fries, cookies and candy--the sidewalk toward home is paved with them.
A recent study in a Philadelphia school district found that schools with a greater percentage of overweight students were the ones that were also surrounded by more snacking places.
In this report out of WCCO Television in Minneapolis, a dietician recommends that parents check out the likely places their child might stop on the way home from school, go there with the student and suggest healthier options than the highest calorie or fat choices.
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