Building upon Governor Schwarzenegger's Vision for a Healthy California, his 2010 Summit marks an important opportunity to emphasize equitable eating and activity environments for all Californians. Our state's leadership to promote healthy eating and activity recently came into focus with the unveiling of First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative. Legislation enacted in California, along with physical improvements throughout the state, has helped propel the national conversation about America's health: quality prevention is now seen as essential to curb chronic disease rates within a generation. Even in the current fiscal climate, California can demonstrate visionary leadership and uphold commitments to healthy food and activity environments for all.
The Strategic Alliance a consortium of organizations and advocates for healthy food and activity environments and an inititative of Prevention Institute, has been urging breakthrough action for months; here are the steps we hope California will take tomorrow:
- Make California Government a model for healthy workplaces by stimulating organizational practices that emphasize healthy environments.
- Advance strategies to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
- Increase availability of free tap water for students in cafeterias and other eating areas at school.
- Pass a state law requiring students to be active at least 50% of Physical Education class time.
- Use scarce resources wisely: Accelerate shared use of public facilities to support safe, physical activity.
- Continue California Safe Routes to School Funding through Caltrans, simplifying the application process and ensuring support for low-resource schools to develop successful application.
- Establish a Health in all Policies Task Force under the auspices of the Strategic Growth Council.
The full report, Moving from Vision to Reality: Priority Actions to Advance Equitable Opportunities for Healthy Eating and Activity in California, is available here.
Prevention Institute will be at the Governor's Summit, and we and our partners will be tweeting live.
Follow #hnosummit for updates, or view the feed at http://bit.ly/hnosummit.