Thanks to new legislation, schools across the country have to roll out comprehensive new wellness policies before the start of the next school year. It's an issue that the Girl Scouts of America has been focusing on, so Connect for Kids decided to find out what Girl Scouts across the country have to say about staying healthy and how schools can help. Sisters Lauren and Megan from Columbia, S.C. kick off a series of interviews prepared by Emerson Hunger Fellow Roshin Mathew.

CFK Reports From: The Future of Children: Childhood Obesity
Event: Forum
Organized By: Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and The Brookings Institution
Where/When: Faulk Auditorium - The Brookings Institution, March 14, 2006

A panel of four policy makers discussed their approaches to the problem of childhood obesity in the U.S., at an event marking the release of the third volume in The Future of Children series on the issue.

The headline says it all: "Inequality in the Built Environment Underlies Key Health Disparities in Physical Activity and Obesity." That's the bottom line from a new study in the journal Pediatrics, which finds that areas with higher socio-economic status were significantly more likely than lower-economic and high-minority blocks to have one or more recreational facilities that enable physical activity. This is the first study to look at the disparity in access to recreation sites and the activity and overweight patterns in U.S. teens.

Alarming statistics on the growing numbers of overweight and obese children and teens are getting the attention of school boards, parents, and public health officials. This story, reprinted from Youth Communication's New Youth Connections magazine, is by teen writer Natelege Whaley, who looks at programs aimed at helping teens stay healthy.

Parents work hard to give kids healthy food at home; now they are fighting to get junk food out of schools.

The purpose of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy Resource Guide, developed by the Washington State Department of Health, is to create a comprehensive tool for the prioritization and development of nutrition and physical activity policy options for state, local, regional and private jurisdictions. The resource guide outlines policy options, provides examples of promising and proven policies, and reviews their effectiveness. The nutrition and physical activity policy examples are divided into community, school, worksite and healthcare domains. Institutional and public policy changes are critical to achieving sustained behavioral change. Policy and environmental changes that support healthy communities, healthy organizations and healthy choices are cornerstones in the public health world. This resource provides some promising approaches for addressing obesity, inactivity and poor nutrition.

It's well known that grocery stores are not all created equal—the costs of fresh, healthy foods are typically higher in poorer areas. A RAND Corporation study found links between food costs and kids' health. Where fruits and veggies were more affordable, there were significantly lower gains in Body Mass Index among kindergarteners and first graders. Lower meat prices had the opposite effect.

This national initiative, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is dedicated to the principle that "every child deserves to be healthy and that optimal health involves a trusting relationship between the health professional, the child, the family, and the community as partners in health practice." It offers downloadable resources on topics like nutrition and physical activity.

This section of The Medline Plus is a comprehensive resource, offering current scientific and medical information for parents and health professionals on this serious childhood health issue.

The Medline Plus, a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, has a number of sections related to obesity. This section focuses on childhood nutrition, with information for parents and health professionals. It is updated regularly with information from the scientific and medical community.