Summary on Childhood Obesity Summit

Janet Mauer, Cherry Cramer , Julene Swenson and myself attended the Childhood Obesity Summit held at the Minnesota State Capital Aug 27.

Senator Al Franken spoke along with Minnesota Policy Makers Sen. Terri Banoff, Rep. Kim Norton and Rep. Bob Dettmer.

Senator Franken opened the session with his comments on how he believes that we should get families back to basics in the aspect of eating together and learning to cook at home with proper nutrition. He talked about some of the programs that his daughter is working on in D.C. after school. She is a teacher and a chef.

The other panelists talked about physical education and school lunch programs and the work that they have done in Minnesota to fight obesity. Rachel Callanan spoke from the American Heart association with an emphasis on the importance of improving school lunches and eliminating alternative foods in school including non healthy fund raisers.

Deb LaBounty demonstrated the importance of a healthy school lunch.

Cara McNulty spoke on the programs that have been implemented through the department of health in the past year and the progress that they have made.

For me personally this was a little disappointing looking from the Family and Consumer Sciences window as nutrition education was mentioned several times but our programs were never discussed or brought up. The focus was on Physical Education and School Lunch Programs.

The Minnesota coalition did not discuss the work that Family and Consumer Sciences educators do and did not pick up on Senator Frankins interest in education through the schools.

Senator Frankin had to leave and the floor was not opened for discussion and questions. Cherry stayed and spoke to the local politicians. I followed the senators handlers and caught them waiting outside the rest room while the senator was getting ready for the state fair. I talked to Katherine Blauvelt and told her about AAFCS and the work the FACS educators do. She gave me her card and asked me three times to e-mail her and said that the senator is very interested in keeping programs like ours alive. Katherine's contact information: Katherine_Blauvelt@franken.senate.gov

I would encourage each of you to write a note to each of the people on this panel about FACS as they have a vested interest in nutrition. Please state information about what FACS educators do and why it is important to continue the funding for our programs. If you are lobbying you can not mention MAFCS.

Lastly please remember that our national organization has an initiative called "Taking it to the Streets" and the focus this year is on obesity prevention and combat. If you do anything in your work or classroom that is related please take pictures and share this information with me. I am on the national committee and we would like to document the hard work and effort that you do in your profession.

Remember this issue is about your jobs and your passion. Please take it seriously and help us to fight for FACS.

Very sincerely, Jane Hall Hinrichsen,

AAFCS "Taking it to the Streets"