As Congress looks to the reauthorizations of the Child Nutrition and WIC and Elementary and Secondary Education Acts next year, and the Head Start Reauthorization in coming years, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity (RWJF Center) is providing information to help policymakers and their staff understand how environments in childcare settings across the nation affect children’s eating habits and physical activity levels...
- A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine finds that the majority of the nation’s Head Start programs report doing more to support healthy eating and physical activity than is required by existing federal regulations. The press release and a link to the study are available here.
- Preventing Obesity in the Childcare Setting: Evaluating State Regulations assesses nutrition and physical activity regulations for childcare centers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands and grades each state according to model healthy eating and physical activity regulations. A media advisory and report cards for each state are available online. Both this report and the study above were funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- Institute of Medicine (IOM) to Look at Childcare Meals: The IOM recently announced the formation of a committee to review and recommend revisions to the Department of Agriculture's Child and Adult Care Food Program meal requirements. Please visit the IOM website for more information.
On Thursday, December 10, 2009, at 12 p.m. Eastern, the RWJF Center will host a webinar examining obesity-prevention efforts in childcare. Dr. Sara Benjamin, the author of the state report cards, will be one of the featured presenters. The webinar will cover new research that can help drive policy change at the federal, state, and local level to help prevent childhood obesity.
• Click here to register for the webinar.
