A recent Chicago Tribune Article from July 31, 2010, highlights a new trend… more parents signing their kids up for personal trainers. According to the article, parents are feeling desperate to get their kids active because of the high risk of childhood obesity. These sessions do not come cheap though. A gym mentioned in the article works with members from the ages 6 and up and charges $75 dollars an hour during a training session. Other gyms have clients as young as three.
Parents are right to be concerned about the current and future health of their kids and starting young is advantageous. It is great that they are introducing their kids to alternatives such as yoga, Zumba and CrossFit classes, especially if their kids dislike sports. These are all fantastic activities that can be introduced into a school gym class or recess instead of parents paying extra for them.
The rise in hired personal trainers only further shows how important it is to create balanced lives through school programs. There is an increased interest in child exercise but not everyone can afford to hire trainers for their kids. Schools have the potential to give the children the right tools through proper nutrition education, healthy meals and exercise.
The Organic School Project’s GROW TEACH FEED programs are examples of pre-emptive approaches that can accomplish a balanced lifestyle. Connecting children to proper nutrition and exercise through holistic wellness programming at an early age can help parents avoid spending money on a gym trainer out of desperation.
Hiring a personal trainer requires an appalling amount of money. For kids that young, the same activity can be done at school or through regular playtime activity. The money that would be spent on a personal trainer could then be put towards feeding their children better food. Parents choose what their young children eat and can control levels of obesity through that medium.
read the Chicago Tribune article at
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-0728-kids-gym-20100728,0,94141.story
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
What's going on in D.C.
The nation-wide effort to improve the quality of school lunch continues as one-third of the nation’s children remain overweight or obese. Public Schools in Washington, D.C., which have the ninth-highest rate of childhood obesity in the country, according to a June report by the Trust for America's Health, are making their own efforts in executing a better school food system. Two pilot programs have been established that intend to vastly improve meals, altering the diet of ultra-processed and sugary foods. Scheduled to start in fourteen Elementary Schools in the fall, the programs are designed to gauge what works best in terms of food quality and preparation. The best practices will then be applied the following year.
On Monday, the D.C. Public School System announced the two vendors they chose to supply these healthier meals. Revolution Foods will provide prepackaged meals to seven schools that do not have a student cafeteria, while DC Central Kitchen will supply meals made-from-scratch at seven schools in Northeast Washington. These vendors are required to meet strict nutritional standards recommended by the Institute of Medicine. Additionally, each meal must contain fruit, vegetables and hormone free milk. 75% of the edible products must be 75% or more whole-grain, and grass-fed, local and antibiotic-free meats must be served whenever possible.
The lack of fresh food products served in the cafeteria’s stood as a major driving force for the D.C School System. They realized the best approach to solving this problem was to change where they were getting their food from. While six vendors expressed interest in the programs, worth about $2 million annually, Anthony Tata, Chief Operating Officer for D.C. Public Schools, told the Washington Post that smaller vendors were selected over the national corporations because of their more extensive relationships with local farmers.
To learn more about the pilot programs and the vendors, read the August 3, 2010, article in the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/02/AR2010080204675.html?waporef=obinsite
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)