The forum, moderated by Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at Brookings, provided an opportunity for national, state, and local policy makers to explain the policies they have implemented to combat obesity. Undersecretary Eric Bost, of the United States Department of Agriculture, delivered the keynote address. Bost began with a simple anecdote about one of his visits to a rural elementary school in South Carolina, where he watched students walk 25 yards from their bus to the school's front door. Bost said some of the six- and seven-year-old students were bent over and gasping for air by the time they got to the door. The early morning image highlighted, for Bost, "how bad health issues are for children."

Leticia Van de Putte, a Texas State Senator and Pharmacist, followed Bost's lead and began with a powerful image: children and their parents coming into her pharmacy to buy vials of insulin. "These parents are crying. It is not a wake-up call. It is a death sentence."

Van de Putte urged parents to question not only what the test scores of their schools are, but to inquire about their school's health report. In Texas, she pushed through legislation which requires every school to report on its student population's fitness and body mass index. Senator Van de Putte concluded, "We need cohesive collaboration and courage to address childhood obesity in our country."

Sylvia Dunn, food service director of Cypress Cove Elementary School in Slidell, Louisiana, described her 24-year journey to put healthy food on the plates of her school's students. Her school's efforts culminated in a program called Go, Grow, and Glow which is nutrition curriculum for preschoolers. Students learn that some foods make them go, some foods make them grow, and some foods make them glow. The lesson plans simplify the Food Guide Pyramid so children connect healthy food to positive effects on their bodies. Bread is a Go food; it helps kids run. Fruits make hair shiny, and therefore; fruits are Glow foods. Lastly, milk fits into the Grow category because it helps kids grow big and strong. Food service staff members teach the lessons and reinforce the food categories in the cafeteria thr ough tasting parties and food labels. After a near quarter of a century, Cypress Cove Elementary changed from serving white bread to whole wheat, cooked vegetables to raw, and iceberg lettuce to mixed greens. Dunn closed by emphasizing "you have to take baby steps."

Jill Wynn, commissioner of San Francisco's Unified School District, described how a coalition of local government officials, parents, and community groups succeeded in the banning of exclusive soda contracts in schools, winning passage of the Commercial Free Schools Act, petitioning for healthy choices in vending machines, and the creation of student nutrition advisory committees.

The meeting closed with a brief Q & A session. One question from a young woman in the back of the room elicited two very different responses. She asked, "I think parents do not know what nutritious food is, especially low income parents. Don't you think we need to support more nutrition education for parents before we expect parents to combat obesity?" Bost responded by pointing out that $700 million dollars are spent on nutrition education, and much of the money goes to WIC and Food Stamp programs. "I can give you information every day, but at some point you (parents) have to make different choices." Van de Putte had a different perspective: "Low-income parents know that a donut is less nutritious than an apple, but when you only have $20 to buy groceries for a family of four, the less expensive donut gets bought."