2 Comments November 15th, 2008 by bronxdoc
Drew Gardens
On Wednesday, November 19th, the Public Health Association of New York (PHANYC) wil sponsor a symposium at Lehman College in the Bronx entitled: Feast and Famine: Obesity, Diabetes and Hunger in New York City. The event, which is cosponsored by the MPH program at Lehman, will take place between 6 and 8PM at the Faculty Dining room of the Music Building at Lehman College. For directions, click here.
The program will include presentations by a diverse group of Bronx community activists. Among these are:
Sister Mary Alice of the Part of the Solution Soup Kitchen on Webster Avenue. POTS started in 1982 with three people making soup in a Bronx store front. “At that time, the original founders were told that POTS was the 35th emergency food provider in New York City . Twenty-four years later, there are over 170 providers in the Bronx alone.”
Lorraine Montenegro and Christian Estrada of United Bronx Parents, Inc will also discuss hunger in the Bronx. UBP runs a variety of programs including La Escuelita, which includes a homeless hot meals program and an emergency food pantry.
Someone from the local Health Department will discuss Bronx Farmers’ Markets.
Jennifer Plewka of the Phipps Development Corporation will discuss community gardens. Phipps is a large non-profit which develops, owns and manages affordable housing. Phipps also runs a community development corporation which created Drew Gardens in the West Farms section of the Bronx. Details on the garden are available from the Bronx River Alliance at this link.
Marian Feinberg of For A Better Bronx (FABB) will discuss several initiatives to support alternative food sources including community gardens, farmers’ markets and indoor food growing.
David Sappire of the Council on the Environment will discuss the Learn It, Grow It, Eat It program in the Morrisania section of the South Bronx. You can see this program in action in a video clip from an August 2008 WCBS TV news report.
A representative of Bronx Health Reach will discuss their Bodegas Outreach Initiative which encourages bodega owners to low-fat snacks, 1% milk, and a variety of fruit.
Many of these programs work in collaboration with local academic medical centers including Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the Institute for Family Health.
For more information or to RSVP, please contact PHANYC at info@phanyc.org.
Posted by Matt Anderson
Add a comment August 14th, 2008 by bronxdoc
Following our posting last week regarding the American Academy of Pediatrics and Baby Formula, our friend Claudio Schuftan emailed us about an initiative by the International Obesity Task Force to reduce the commercial promotion of foods and beverages to children.
In 2006, the IOTF elaborated a draft set of principles to address this issue, called the Sydney Principles. These were subjected to public criticism and a revised, final set of principles was adopted in 2007. The final principles are available on the IOTF website and were published in article from in Public Health Nutrition in May of 2008. Since this article cannot be downloaded for free, you may want to write the lead author, Boyd Swinburn, for a reprint. These principles were developed in collaboration with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention.
Here are the seven principles:
The Sydney Principles
Actions to reduce commercial promotions to children should:
1. SUPPORT THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN.
Regulations need to align with and support the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Rome Declaration on World Food Security which endorse the rights of children to adequate, safe and nutritious food.
2. AFFORD SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTION TO CHILDREN.
Children are particularly vulnerable to commercial exploitation, and regulations need to be sufficiently powerful to provide them with a high level of protection. Child protection is the responsibility of every section of society - parents, governments, civil society, and the private sector.
3. BE STATUTORY IN NATURE.
Only legally-enforceable regulations have sufficient authority to ensure a high level of protection for children from targeted marketing and the negative impact that this has on their diets. Industry self-regulation is not designed to achieve this goal.
4. TAKE A WIDE DEFINITION OF COMMERCIAL PROMOTIONS.
Regulations need to encompass all types of commercial targeting of children (e.g. television advertising, print, sponsorships, competitions, loyalty schemes, product placements, relationship marketing, Internet) and be sufficiently flexible to include new marketing methods as they develop.
5. GUARANTEE COMMERCIAL-FREE CHILDHOOD SETTINGS. Regulations need to ensure that childhood settings such as schools, child care, and early childhood education facilities are free from commercial promotions that specifically target children.
6. INCLUDE CROSS BORDER MEDIA.
International agreements need to regulate cross-border media such as Internet, satellite and cable television, and free-to-air television broadcast from neighbouring countries.
7. BE EVALUATED, MONITORED AND ENFORCED.
The regulations need to be evaluated to ensure the expected effects are achieved, independently monitored to ensure compliance, and fully enforced.
Some thoughts:
It is interesting to use these principles as a benchmark to see how far commercial promotion to children has penetrated our society, particularly into the commercial-free childhood settings mentioned in the principles.
In 2003, New York City signed an agreement with Snapple Beverages, making Snapple “the exclusive provider via vending machines of water and fruit juices in the City’s 1,200 schools” and New York City’s official beverage. One wonders why New York City needed an official beverage. In addition:
As a part of its commitment to schools, Snapple has entered into a five-year agreement to exclusively vend bottled spring water and 100 per cent juices in all schools. Snapple, in cooperation with the Department of Education, will develop new products that meet the City’s strict nutrition guidelines. Snapple’s new product line ‘100% Juiced!’ will include four flavors, Green Apple, Orange Mango, Grape and Fruit Punch, with Vitamins A, C, D and Calcium.
I suppose this is an attempt to show that Snapple is promoting nutrition. But bottled water is not necessarily safer than public water, it is more expensive than tap water, and is much less ecologicaly friendly. Many of us feel that juice drinking is part of the obesity problem, not part of its solution. In short, this type of marketing gives a stamp of nutritional approval to corporate-friendly diets. When kids are thirsty, shouldn’t they be going to the drinking fountain?
And, of course, there is the promotion of food to children in healthcare settings. Perhaps the extreme form of this has been the placing of McDonald’s Restaurants in New York City Hospitals.
For background to this issue, the IOTF webpage offers several detailed reports.
Posted by Matt Anderson
