let's move

An organic breakfast featuring vanilla spiced whole oats, scrambled vegetable tofu, organic milk and local pears, followed by morning yoga in the classroom, a student-led garden tour and a visit to the chicken coop… what a wonderful way to spend a Tuesday morning!  That day, I had the pleasure of attending a special ceremony with Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan at the Academy of Global Citizenship (AGC) in Chicago where she presented them with USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC) Gold of Distinction Award, the HUSSC’s highest honor.  It was easy to see why they are the first school in Chicago and the entire Midwest to receive such an honor.

National School Lunch Week is underway this week. It’s an annual event, of course, but this year I think we have a lot to celebrate because more and more people are coming to understand how important it is to provide America’s school children with a healthy nutrition environment at school.   In fact, as I look around, I see encouraging developments in many areas, but none more so than the growing number of schools that have decided to take on USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge.

I just participated in a wonderful school nutrition conference in Athens, GA that ran from September 28-30.  It was Georgia’s annual School Nutrition Directors’ Conference, and I found it to be very well organized and packed with important information.

Six months ago the Apps for Healthy Kids competition called upon Americans to design engaging online or mobile games and tools to educate people of all ages about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity. As part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative, this challenge brought together solvers from across the Nation.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog.

Editors note: Organizing a meetup is a great way to get involved and support your community.  Below, a team of Federal employees share how they set up their first meetup.

Cross-Posted from the Let's Move! Blog

Have you ever wanted fresh, local produce but didn’t know how to find the nearest farmers market?  The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) makes it easy with the National Farmers Market search engine, which lists more than 6,100 markets across the nation.  Markets can be searched by name, city, zip code, and several other keyword fields.

One of our Nation's most pressing health challenges today is obesity with one in three children in America either overweight or obese.  Low-income individuals are particularly at-risk.  That’s why First Lady Michelle Obama launched Let’s Move! The campaign mobilizes the combined resources of the federal government, state and local governments, foundations, business and nonprofit organizations to help solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight and live healthier lives.

The Apps for Healthy Kids public voting period concludes this Saturday, August 14, at noon (EDT), and there is no better time than now to add your voice and vote to the competition.  To date we have received over 17,000 votes on the apps recently created by the American public in the effort to address the very serious problem of childhood obesity. We started this competition with a goal of generating innovative apps that are engaging and educational to the target audience - tweens and their parents. And the best way to judge that goal is to get the American public involved so we need you to go online try out these apps and cast your vote.

Written by Sarah Alligood, Health Technician, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

A little over one week remains in the Apps for Healthy Kids voting period, and so far, over 11,500 votes have been tallied. In addition, support for the initiative continues to amplify, with the number of supporters reaching nearly 30,000! Of the 95 games and tools in the application gallery, favorites are beginning to emerge, but there is still time to vote for the apps that you think are most deserving of the $4,500 Popular Choice Awards.

The USDA Forest Service has released an updated report today that documents how national forests provide economic, health and recreational benefits.

The National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM) Report states that recreation activities on national forests and grasslands have helped to sustain an estimated 223,000 jobs in rural areas and have contributed approximately $14.5 billion annually to the U.S. economy.