Healthier Schools
Salad Bars in Los Angeles Schools: How Can You Follow Their Lead?
Imagine it is lunchtime and kids are running on empty. They rush into the lunch line, but instead of reaching for chicken nuggets and pizza, students are decorating their trays with brightly colored vegetables and fruits like red cherry tomatoes, green broccoli, black beans, and oranges. This isn’t just a dream, it is actually happening in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
High school students from LAUSD’s Los Angeles High School of the Arts teach elementary and middle school kids how to correctly and safely use a salad bar through a skit called Salad Bar Manners.
LAUSD, the second largest school district in the United States, serves as a great example for how to integrate healthy eating habits into everyday school routines. With the help of Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools (LMSB2S), the salad bar program at LAUSD shows what can happen when students and parents take initiative to support healthy eating in school cafeterias. Are you inspired by LAUSD? Take a look at how you can help make this a reality within schools in your community.
Champions of Change Get Their Communities Moving
Today, the White House honored twelve Americans who are who are living the goals of Let’s Move! everyday as Champions of Change. Each of the invitees is an example of what First Lady Michelle Obama called the founding purpose of Let’s Move! – community leaders, teachers and health professsionals who have found creative ways to keep our children active and healthy and get their communities moving!
During the event, the Champions each talked about the program they developed or introduced to their community and together they spoke about how small changes can yield tremendous wins in the lives of their students, area children and families.
Let's Move! joins the CIAA for the Tournament's 100th Anniversary Celebration
On Friday, First Lady Michelle Obama was in Charlotte, North Carolina to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The CIAA is the oldest African-American athletic conference in the U.S. and the First Lady joined area school children for a Let's Move! event on the court before the annual CIAA Basketball Tournament.
Let’s Move!: Two Years of Healthy Changes For Our Nation’s Kids
First Lady Michelle Obama joins students for a "Let's Move!" Salad Bars to Schools launch event at Riverside Elementary School in Miami, Fla., Nov. 22, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
Since launching Let’s Move! on February 9, 2010, significant progress has been made to solve the problem of childhood obesity. Parents, businesses, educators, elected officials, members of the military, chefs, physicians, athletes, childcare providers, community and faith leaders and kids themselves have made substantial commitments to improve the health of our nation’s children. Through working together with Let’s Move!, these groups have provided children with healthier food and greater opportunities for physical activity in schools and communities, helped get families the information they need to make healthier decisions, supported a healthy start in early childhood, and have worked to ensure more people have access to healthy, affordable food.
Chefs Move to Schools in Action
Across the country, chefs and schools are teaming up to teach kids how to get more from their food and make healthy choices. The Chefs Move to Schools initiative encourages chefs to partner with schools to support the creation of healthy, affordable meals and educate children on healthy cooking and eating that’s also delicious!
Team California is On the Move!
An all-star lineup was on hand to kick off an initiative to encourage California kids to make healthier choices, from left: former San Francisco Giants pitcher Bill Laskey, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, San Jose Earthquakes Community Ambassador Kelly Gray, Cy Young award-winning pitcher Vida Blue, and former ‘49ers lineman Bill “Bubba” Paris.
New Commitments to Aid the Fight Against Childhood Obesity Announced at Summit
First Lady Michelle Obama meets with members of the board of Partnership for a Healthier America, an organization working to end childhood obesity, at the Omni Hotel in Washington, D.C., Nov. 30, 2011. Mrs. Obama later delivered the keynote address at the PHA’s inaugural Building a Healthier Future Summit. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), which works with the private sector and its honorary chairwoman First Lady Michelle Obama to solve the nation’s obesity crisis, hosted its first national summit this week on November 29 and 30, 2011. Roughly 800 business leaders, community leaders, academic experts, government officials, parents and others joined together at the Omni Shoreham Hotel for the Building a Healthier Future Summit to share their experiences, form partnerships and announce substantive commitments to aid the fight against childhood obesity.
The two honorary vice chairs of PHA, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Mayor Cory Booker, laid out the challenges the nation faces as a result of the impact of childhood obesity on the economic, the health care system and our military readiness. But the conference was not about reciting the problems. It was about taking action. Senator Frist told of the enormous changes that are taking place in the market place with companies that are selling good-for-you foods showing higher profits and enhanced competitiveness, which you can read more about in a Politico piece penned by Senator Frist and Mayor Booker. Mayor Booker described how his city of Newark and Let’s Move! Cities and Towns all over the country are finding ways to encourage healthy eating and sponsor physical activity.
