Craig Chancellor tried everything he could, but last November he finally closed the Turkey General Store, leaving the small Texas Panhandle town without a grocery. Although Chancellor tried to trim overhead and relocated a small cafe he owned into the store, he couldn't make it work … Researchers said Chancellor's story is being repeated across the country as rural stores struggle to survive amid competition from distant supercenters and relatively high operating costs.

Holding a thick wad of green bills, Barry Twomey shook his head — no one had taken the free money all day. As Interim Director of Mission Hill Main Streets, Twomey is in charge of the neighborhood’s Boston’s Bounty Bucks program, a new initiative that doubles the value of food stamp spending at local farmers’ markets. For each food stamp dollar spent, Twomey will give the customer a Bounty Buck — a green, bill-looking voucher for a dollar of additional food.

For the first $5 an EBT user spends at the farmers' market on anything from beets to broccoli to bok choy, he or she will get an additional $5 in Market Bucks.

Gov. Ted Strickland signed into law last week the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act, designed to help address the increasing problem of childhood obesity. He called it "a very good initial step forward" that could be revisited later.

Somehow it feels wrong to say that the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports has “broadened” its mission when the whole point is to help Americans become more fit. But, in fact, the council has an expanded mission that includes healthy eating and a longer name to reflect that. It’s now the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions across the nation. Now, an initiative planned for Jacksonville and 70 other cities is aiming to stem that tide. But - unlike many such wide-scale efforts - no new programs are planned. The scale of the problem is so great that the initiative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, specifically avoids the creation of new programs, which would only reach a relative handful of children. Instead, the plan will focus on changing policies to make healthy food and physical activity more accessible.

Michelle Obama knows how to strike a pose — a yoga pose, that is. The First Lady exercised with local D.C. students Wednesday afternoon. The event marked Obama's launch of her recast President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. The council, formerly the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, will now include an emphasis on healthy eating habits.

Weeks after a Silicon Valley county became the first in the nation to ban toys from McDonald's Happy Meals and other food promotions aimed at children, a public health watchdog group called on the fast food giant to remove the playthings from all its meal packages. Citing toys aimed at promoting the latest "Shrek" movie, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that the plastic promotions lure children into McDonald's restaurants where they are then likely to order food that is too high in calories, fat and salt.

Regular maintenance and the right fuels are important when it comes to keeping an engine in top shape, and the same is true for your body. That's what kids at Greece's English Village Elementary school are learning from the Healthy Highway nutrition program in their school. During a ceremony on Monday, the school cafeteria was renamed the "Healthy Highway Café."

Whether on campus or off, teenagers are surrounded by unhealthy food options. These include all kinds of inexpensive fast food choices offered before, after and during school to poor-quality meals prepared at home by parents who are just trying to feed their kids. The rate of obesity in the Northern San Joaquin Valley is alarming for all age groups, but health care officials say the number of overweight children is especially troubling.

Most parents don't realize if their preschool-age child is overweight or obese, a new study suggests. The results show 71 percent of participating parents with overweight or obese toddlers misperceived their child's weight, identifying it as either a healthy weight or lighter than healthy weight.

Mayor Gavin Newsom may have tabled his idea to charge retailers a fee for selling soda, but that doesn't mean he can't call for a boycott of the stuff. For the third year in a row, Newsom is calling for a "Soda Free Summer," encouraging city residents not to drink sugar-sweetened beverages. The Board of Supervisors is to vote on a nonbinding resolution Tuesday calling for the same thing.

Popular cartoon characters are influencing the taste preferences of very young children, and not in a positive way, a new study suggests. Researchers found that the branding of American food product packaging with characters such as Dora the Explorer drives preschoolers to choose higher-calorie, less healthful foods over more nutritious options.

Editor’s Note: This article focuses on research conducted by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, an RWJF grantee.

The Obesity Prevention Foundation has been motivating Reno area children and their families this month to peddle, jab and plant their way to healthier lifestyles. In a takeoff on the slogan of First Lady Michelle Obama's national campaign to combat childhood obesity, the foundation began its "Let's Move Nevada" activity tour this month.

Getting students to eat their fruits and vegetables hasn't been much of a problem at R.D. Wood Elementary School this year. The district implemented a new program this year through the state Department of Agriculture to have local farmers deliver produce to the schools for snacks for the kids. The district will expand the program to Silver Run Elementary School next year due to its success, said Gladys McGraw the program's coordinator.

A friend of mine said she has a dumb obesity-related question for me: How can 15 percent of kids be above the 95th percentile? Let me explain.

Changing policies that affect childhood obesity take time, but members of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities steering committee believe the first six months of the initiative have been positive.

After-school programs in half of Ohio's counties, including Sandusky, will be eligible for additional training to combat childhood obesity. Ohio Action for Healthy Kids will receive $60,000 in federal stimulus money. They will use this money to train officials from selected after-school programs in the national Coordinated Approach to Child Health program. The program stresses fitness and nutrition in the classroom and discourages tobacco use.

Sick of discussing soda taxes and obesity? Good! Neither are we. So gather ’round the vending machine, and let’s consider a study showing that a 35% — or $0.45 — increase in the price of non-diet sodas cut unit sales by 26%, at least in one Boston hospital cafeteria.

Sugar-sweetened drinks may soon be harder to find in California schools. Though sugary sodas have been banned for some time in the state's public schools, in middle and high schools, sugar-sweetened sports drinks are allowed. SB1255, already passed by the State Senate and today passed by the Assembly's Education Committee, would ban sale of sugar-sweetened sports drinks during school hours too.