STRATEGIC ALLIANCE NEWSLETTER

August 2004

Welcome to the latest update from the Strategic Alliance. In this issue, titled "Building a Movement with Physical Activity and Nutrition to Improve Healthy Environments," we highlight the importance of physical activity, including:

• A discussion on the importance of incorporating both physical activity and nutrition into the movement to improve health and wellbeing
• Information on a tool that can help you estimate the financial cost of physical inactivity to your community or workplace
• How-to strategies for improving physical activity
• A reportback from the "Super Size Me" movie viewing in Sacramento
• Physical activity resources throughout the state

We appreciate your feedback and suggestions for future issues, and urge you to visit our website on a regular basis.

"70 percent of Americans live in non-walkable environments and have engineered [themselves] right into obesity."
-Jim Sallis, "Active Living Program Wants To Get Us Moving Again," The North County Times, July 3, 2004.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

Call the Governor Regarding Safe Routes to School
SB 1087 (Soto) has passed out of the Assembly and the Senate and is now off to Governor Schwarzenegger for his signature. SB 1087 extends the life of California's Safe Routes to School program until 2008 and will dedicate $20-25 million federal transportation dollars a year for six categories of projects: sidewalk improvements; traffic calming and speed reduction; pedestrian/bicycle crossing improvements; on-street bicycle facilities; and, traffic diversion improvements. Pedestrian accidents are the second leading cause of fatal injuries among 5-12 year olds statewide, with bicycle accidents fifth. It costs California $390 million alone for initial hospital visits resulting from a pedestrian or bicycle accident in 2002. For more information please visit catransportationchoices.org.

SB 1566 Fails Assembly Floor
Senator Escutia's SB 1566, which would establish comprehensive nutrition standards for all foods sold outside of the federal meal programs in all California public schools, K-12 passed the Senate but it did not pass the Assembly Floor. For more information, visit publichealthadvocacy.org/legislation. To view how the voting went, visit www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_1551-1600/sb_1566_vote_20040827_0852PM_asm_floor.html.

Building a Movement: The Role of Physical Activity
Two of the major components of chronic disease prevention are regular physical activity and a healthy diet. According to the World Health Organization, half of the global burden of disease risk factors identified in 2002 -- including high cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity -- are directly related to physical activity and diet. Yet despite their complementary nature, nutrition typically receives far more attention from public health than physical activity does and the two fields often remain divergent. Strategic Alliance, however, formed on the basis that creating healthy environments and behaviors requires the combined wisdom of both physical activity and nutrition. Please visit this page to read more.

"There are a number of free and low-cost ways businesses, schools and government can promote and support physical activity, but there is also a tremendous opportunity to save money and lives through a modest investment in effective programs like school-based physical education and by increasing neighborhood access to safe places to walk and get active."
-Quentin Christian, Executive Director of California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN NEIGHBORHOODS AND WORKPLACES: THE ENVIRONMENTAL NUTRITION AND ACTIVITY COMMUNITY TOOL (ENACT)

ENACT offers a specific menu of practical strategies that can help to improve activity and eating environments on a local level. The tool can be in a number of ways, including

1. Learning more about best practices and promising approaches strategies to improve nutrition and physical activity environments
2. Conducting assessments and selecting priorities for changing your desired environments
3. Diving in and implementing the ENACT strategies
4. Serving as a report card for each listed environment

ENACT has grown steadily and currently offers concrete "how to" information for improving activity in a number of environments, including workplaces and neighborhoods. Specific activity promoting recommendations on a neighborhood level range from incorporating pedestrian and bicycle access into city planning to instituting walk to school programs to promoting Transit Oriented Design. For workplace environments, strategies range from including activity breaks in meetings to reimbursing employees for health and wellness services to encouraging the use of the stairs. You can learn about these and other activity promoting strategies by visiting ENACT online.

PHYSICAL INACTIVITY: WHAT PRICE WILL CALIFORNIA PAY?

On August 10th, Strategic Alliance coordinated the California release of a new online calculator that helps government leaders, policy makers, health departments and businesses calculate the financial costs of a physically inactive population or employee base. Designed by Active Living Leadership and Fifty-Plus Lifelong Fitness, the calculator provides a stark dollar figure for the cost of physical inactivity in addition to the clear health-related costs. The calculator comes at a time when:

• 70% of US adults do not get at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity,
• 70% of Americans live in "non-walkable environments", and
• 25% of all trips made in the United States are less than one mile in length, and 75% of these short trips are in a car.

For additional information, including the California press release, and to access the calculator, please visit eatbettermovemore.org.

FORMING ACTIVE PARTNERSHIPS

In conjunction with Strategic Alliance took advantage of participating in the physical inactivity tool release to form a physical activity committee to provide specific recommendations to promote healthy activity throughout the state. These new partnerships are allowing us to build even stronger connections with groups working on physical activity, from physical education specialists to bike and pedestrian advocates. The full recommendations of this new committee as well as a list of committee members are available through Please visit this page to read more.

"SUPER SIZE ME" AT THE STATE CAPITAL

Strategic Alliance co-sponsored a free viewing of the award winning documentary "Super Size Me." A tremendous success with nearly 900 attendees, the screening was followed by a very special panel discussion, featuring California State Senator Deborah Ortiz and two stars from the movie: Kelly Brownel (Director of Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders) and Mark Fenton (Host of America's Walking). Please visit this page to read more.

UPCOMING ACTIONS/ACTIVITIES

Statewide Physical Activity Resources
Strategic Alliance is compiling an ongoing list of resources and organizations related to physical activity. Please email Sana Chehimi to include your organization. You can access current resources here.

WHAT IS THE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE?

The Strategic Alliance is reframing the debate on nutrition and physical activity, away from a focus on individual choice and lifestyle, towards one of environment and corporate and government responsibility. Current Steering Committee members are: California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit), California Center for Public Health Advocacy, California Food Policy Advocates, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, California Parks and Recreation Society, California Project LEAN, California WIC Association, Child Care Food Program Roundtable, Latino Health Access, Prevention Institute, Samuels & Associates and YMCA of the East Bay.

HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER

The Strategic Alliance is currently engaged in building a broad and diverse statewide membership. To join or for more information, please visit us on the Web, eatbettermovemore.org, or contact Sana Chehimi at 510.444.7738 or sana@preventioninstitute.org. And even if you're already a member, please forward this message on to your colleagues so we can continue to strengthen our coalition. Thank you!

The Strategic Alliance is supported by funding from The California Endowment.

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