Healthy Schools Campaign

New Environmental Health Program Will Unite Researchers and Community

By Rochelle Davis, HSC Founding Executive Director

In mid-July I had the opportunity to participate as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health’s Partnership for Environmental Public Health program. This unique program encourages partnerships between researchers and the community and focuses on research that translates into public health programs or policies. 

I was fortunate to be the Principal Investigator on a project funded by a similar program, an environmental justice funding program, shortly before that program was eliminated. I am so pleased to see that NIH has now created the Partnership for Environmental Public Health program to study the most critical environmental health concerns we face today, as defined by the community. I look forward to seeing the work that comes out of projects funded by this new program. 

Click here to learn about the work that HSC did with funding from NIH.

What Lessons from Chicago will Obama and Arne Duncan Take to DC?

By Rochelle Davis, Founding Executive Director

Chicago has been in the spotlight more than usual for the past few months, as President Barack Obama and new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan transition to DC from careers that began in this city. With HSC’s office in Chicago and some of our key programs focused on healthy change in Chicago Public Schools, we have been giving a great deal of thought to the lessons on health and education that our leaders will bring from Chicago to the national policy dialogue.

It’s with this in mind that HSC is pleased to release our new report, Healthy and Ready to Learn: Lessons from Chicago. This report outlines the five lessons on school health that we’d like to see our leaders bring to DC, along with personal stories and policy recommendations for each.

Why do these Chicago lessons matter? We know that one of the greatest challenges facing our leaders is to provide a good education and a health-promoting environment for students in urban school districts serving low-income communities of color. The Chicago Public Schools system serves more than 400,000 students at more than 650 schools. African-American and Latino students comprise 85 percent of the district’s student population. More than 83 percent of the student population is considered low-income, and the district serves more than 56 million school meals per year.

I can’t imagine a more appropriate place for these lessons to originate: both the challenges and the promise of this system make the lessons learned here valuable for our nation as a whole.

I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the full report and share it with your colleagues. We’d love to hear your feedback and invite you to sign on as a supporter of the policy recommendations. But first, let me share a quick summary of the five lessons:

1. A healthy school environment supports learning.
2. Healthy school meals are critical for student health and learning.
3. Physical activity supports student health and helps students focus on learning.
4. School nurses are important for promoting student health.
5. Parent and stakeholder engagement can be a powerful catalyst for making school-based change.

These are simple, common-sense lessons. Although the related policy changes are not always easy to implement, we hope that our leaders will make it a priority to consider these lessons and the value of healthy schools.  As schoolchildren in Chicago can attest, small changes make a big difference: a healthy meal, a few minutes of physical activity and clean classroom air all go a long way to help children focus and do their best at school.

Junk Food Islands: Transforming Communities to Combat Childhood Obesity

by Guillermo Gomez, HSC Chicago Director

A recent article published in the Robert Wood Johnson Childhood Obesity Digest suggests that one-third of schools in the nation have at least one fast food restaurant or convenience store within walking distance. The researchers found that schools in low-income neighborhoods had more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than those in higher income neighborhoods.

Just as we have food deserts in lower socio-economic neighborhoods, we also have junk food islands with high concentrations of fast food restaurants and convenience stores.

Clearly, this has an impact on health and wellness efforts in school. As the researchers write, "this study suggests that curbing obesity in adolescents will require addressing the food environment surrounding schools as well as within schools."

Healthy Schools Campaign and Parents United for Healthy Schools, a coalition we brought together to make healthy changes at schools in Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods, work to combat childhood obesity in part by creating school wellness teams and working with parents to promote healthy lifestyles at home and at schools.

As this research shows, it appears that if we want to have any significant impact in fighting the obesity epidemic, then we need to address the community environment as well as the school and home environments.  If we start at home by creating a healthy lifestyle and take that message to schools, we also have to look at the community surrounding the school.

In Parents United for Healthy Schools work in Chicago’s Little Village, for example, we began by engaging parents in the healthy lifestyles message. These parents then took the message to schools, forming school wellness teams and advocating for healthy food and increased physical activity.

But the parents also took the message to the community, talking with restaurant owners about using healthier oils (and less of it) and sharing their recipe for healthier tamales with a popular local caterer. They worked with other parents to plant backyard gardens that provide fresh vegetables, started walking clubs, and have essentially made the wellness message part of the fabric of a community.

This creates an environment in which the community is more receptive to healthy changes at school and, importantly, where children receive the same wellness messages from teachers, parents and the adults in their neighborhood.

If we are to succeed in fighting obesity in communities with "junk food islands," then we must develop a strategy to address the junk food – and the messages – that surround our  schools.

Fox News Focuses on What Chicago Schools Are Doing to Battle Childhood Obesity

by Tara Kennon, HSC Writer & Publications Coordinator

Guillermo Gomez, HSC's Chicago director, was featured in a news segment last night on Fox Chicago News at Nine that looked at what Chicago schools are doing to battle childhood obesity. Check out the video segment and the related fact page on childhood obesity.

Fox also featured a family involved with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, one of HSC's community partners.

Guillermo Gomez to Discuss Childhood Obesity on Fox Chicago News at Nine

by Tara Kennon, HSC Writer & Publications Coordinator

Guillermo Gomez, HSC's Chicago director, is scheduled to appear on Fox News Chicago (channel 32) in a segment on childhood obesity Thursday, March 22, at 9 p.m. (The segment was previously scheduled to air today.)

Gomez is also filming a segment for Chicago Access Network Television (CAN-TV) with Parents United for Healthy Schools members Jovita Flores of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Idida Perez of West Town Leadership United.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's news segment on Fox and stay tuned for details about when the CAN-TV program will air!

HSC in the News: Childhood Obesity

by Tara Kennon, HSC Writer & Publications Coordinator

Latino and African-American communities in Chicago face tremendous health disparities, including rates of childhood obesity and asthma more than double the national average. It's great to see local media really address this issue and report on the remarkable efforts that parents are making to reverse these trends.

HSC's Rochelle Davis and Guillermo Gomez are quoted extensively in an article by Taryn Luntz of Medill News Service that appeared in multiple publications this week, including the Chicago Defender and Chi-Town Daily News. The Times (Northwest Indiana) ran an abbreviated version.

The story highlights the seriousness of the problem and parents' efforts to address it:

In Chicago's black and Hispanic neighborhoods, parents, schools and community leaders are making small changes that could add up to a big improvement in children's health.

"The Latino and African-American communities across the nation are in a state of epidemic," said Guillermo Gomez, father of a Chicago public school student and the Chicago director for the Healthy Schools Campaign, a children's health advocacy group.

"You can't put it any other way. There's an epidemic in these communities in the area of obesity and health disparity. Once parents understand that, there's no other way but to come out and help and to try to make a difference."

One of the ways HSC is addressing these health disparities is by organizing Parents United for Healthy Schools/Padres Unidos Para Escuelas Saludables, a coalition of more than 30 independent parent and community organizations representing eight Chicago communities.

PUHS recently brought together parents, principals and community leaders to share ideas at a breakfast for school wellness and is training parents to be active in local school wellness councils. If you'd like to get your organization involved, contact Guillermo Gomez at 312-419-1810.

Plus: Fox News interviewed Guillermo yesterday for a news segment on childhood obesity that is expected to air Wednesday, March 21, at 9 p.m. Stay tuned for more details!