Making Sure Every Kid is Healthy and Ready to Learn!

We all know that childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States. Just walking by any playground in the country, you can see that, on the whole, children are at a heavier weight than they were just a generation ago. Decades of increasing portion sizes, cuts in PE classes or after-school sports programs, and thousands of other factors have taken their toll and left us and our kids in the throes of a full-fledged epidemic. One in three kids is overweight or obese and, consequently, at risk for serious health problems, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, just to name a couple. And those are just two of the implications of childhood obesity. We also know that children who eat poorly or don’t get enough exercise face mental health issues and don’t do as well as they could in school. The situation is downright alarming!

A generation ago such conditions would have been unimaginable. Today they must be unacceptable.

This month, National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, you’re probably hearing and reading a lot about the crisis – and, hopefully, about some of the successes realized by families, schools and communities that make our children’s health a priority. I’m grateful for that. But I’m also asking you to pay attention to this problem beyond September.

Together, We Can Keep Kids Healthy

Childhood obesity is an issue my organization – Action for Healthy Kids – has focused on year-round since our founding a decade ago because it’s just that serious. Through our school-based programs and grants, we strive to make school environments healthier so that kids can be healthier. In fact, our thousands of volunteers around the country take physical activity and nutrition lessons and changes directly to children – in their classrooms, in their schools’ cafeterias and on their schools’ playgrounds  so that they can eat nutritiously and play every day. Those efforts are inspirational and making a difference. But they’re not yet enough.

As CEO of Action for Healthy Kids and the father of three young children (7, 5 and 2 years old), I’m on a mission to make sure people from every walk of life know they have a part to play in ending the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic, whether they have children or not.  That’s why I’m encouraging teachers, bus drivers, school custodians, cafeteria workers, school administrators, moms and dads, and caring community members alike to take just 10 seconds to sign their names to our  Every Kid Healthy Pledge , which is not only shining a spotlight on the issue of childhood obesity, but also showing people – like you – ways, big and small, that you can help us fight this epidemic. 

You can get involved by attending an Action for Healthy Kids event  (conference or webinar) or by becoming a volunteer, whatever works for you. The bottom line is, with everyone pulling together, we can give kids the keys to health and academic success, one school, and if necessary one child, at a time.  And, we can start with one simple “action for healthy kids” at a time.

Rob Bisceglie was appointed CEO of Action for Healthy Kids in January 2008, bringing fifteen years of diverse non-profit experience in management, operations, development, and strategic and operational planning.

About Action for Healthy Kids 

Action for Healthy Kids® is the nation’s leading nonprofit and largest volunteer network fighting childhood obesity and undernourishment by helping schools become healthier places so our kids can learn to eat right, are active every day and are ready to learn. Nationwide, the school-based, grassroots efforts of our 30,000+ volunteers are supported by a collaboration of more than 70 organizations, corporations and government agencies.

For more information, contact Rob here.