Title: Message from the Chair
Author:
Section/SPIG: Food and Nutrition
Issue Date:
It has been a busy year for our section. A critical role for APHA Sections is to produce relevant, up-to-date and science/evidence-based position papers and resolutions on emerging and current public health issues. APHA's policies serve as the organizaztion's official stance on health issues and guide the association in its public health advocacy efforts. In February, our FN Section submitted to APHA for review two Proposed Policy Statements for 2003: 1) Support for Child Nutrition Programs and 2) Food Marketing and Advertising Directed Children and Adolescents. The 'Support for Child Nutrition Programs' Policy Statement was submitted as a late-breaker resolution during the November 2002 Annual Meeting and was titled 'American Public Health Association Support for Reauthorization of USDA Child Nutrition and WIC Programs in 2003.' This was passed as interim policy, but is now required to undergo the complete policy development and approval process for 2003. The proposed policy statement was renamed 'American Public Health Association Support for Child Nutrition Programs.' The proposed policy statement is being co-sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Section.
We also submitted for review a proposed policy statement on 'Food Marketing and Advertising Directed Children and Adolescents,' which is co-sponsored by the Food and Nutrition Section, the Maternal and Child Health Section, and the School Health Education and Services Section. We feel this is an important public health issue which needs national attention and that APHA should have a policy statement addressing this issue. Children and adolescents are currently being aggressively targeted and exposed to an increasing and unprecedented amount of food advertising and marketing of high-calorie, low-nutrition foods through a wide range of venues including television, the Internet and schools. This proposed policy statement is timely given the epidemic of childhood obesity. Both proposed policy statements we submitted must undergo the full APHA review process. The Association's Governing Council at the November 2003 Annual Meeting in San Francisco will do final voting for all policies. The 2003 proposed policies and the policy review schedule are available on the APHA Web site.
The Food and Nutrition Section Executive Board had its mid-year meeting March 5-6, 2003, and spent two highly productive days in Washington, DC, at APHA headquarters. Our meeting was devoted primarily to the Overweight in Childhood Action Plan and the Section Strategic Plan. The action plan continues the work laid out after the passage of the 2001 Overweight in Childhood resolution. The strategic plan is the Section's effort at mapping out our short-term and long-term (five year) goals and objectives. Sheryl Lee led the group discussion on the action plan and Annie Carr led the group in fine-tuning the Section strategic plan. The strategic plan and information on childhood overweight is available on our Section's Web site, <www.aphafoodandnutrition.org>. As part of the Overweight in Childhood Action Plan, we overhauled our Web pages on childhood overweight. Please look at our new Web pages on this topic as they offer many resources and links on the topic of child and adolescent nutrition. We need to thank Communication Committee Chair Paul Cotton, and Co-Chair Dena Goldberg for all their work on this project and our Web site in general. From October 2001 through June we had over 7,000 visits to our Web site, with visitors from around the world. In May alone, we had 821 hits on the obesity Web site.
The Web site was completed in time for this year's National Public Health week in April. Each April, APHA sponsors NPHW to draw national attention to a major public health issue. This year's theme for NPHW April 7-13 was overweight and obesity, which carried the tagline "Getting in Shape for the Future: Healthy Eating and Active Living." Our section was actively involved in working with APHA on NPHW. Patricia Risica, who is Secretary of our Section, served as our section's liaison to APHA and worked closely with Lakitia Mayo, APHA's Director of Grassroots Advocacy and Affiliate Affairs who coordinated the event this year. Our section helped develop the toolkit to help communities and public health personnel plan their NPHW activities. The kit features media advocacy tips, sample news releases, and talking points and tips on reaching legislators. It also features an overview on overweight and obesity and state-by-state data. We also sent letters to encourage APHA's sections and Affiliates to use NPHW as an opportunity to plan events around overweight and obesity and to educate their colleagues and communities. We thank Patricia and Lakitia for all their hard work on this event. Check out the APHA Web site on the activities and resources for the NPHW, <www.apha.org/nphw>.
In addition, at our meeting we discussed new awards criteria developed by Judy Wilson, chair of our awards committee. Barbara Polhamus reported on the plans for the APHA 2003 Annual Meeting in San Francisco and the abstract approval process. Charlene Sanders and Barbara are Chair and Co-chair of the Program Planning Committee. Under their guidance, we will have many exciting sessions and we hope you can join us in San Francisco Nov. 15-19.
Fourteen Board members participated in the mid-year meeting -- Annie Carr, Noel Chavez, Paul Cotton, Ellen Harris, Jay Hirschman, Katrina Holt, Sheryl Lee, Geraldine Perry, Barbara Polhamus, Patricia Risica, Mary Story, Joan Trendell, Judy Wilson and Margo Wootan. This was the third mid-year meeting held by the Section. The attendance at the meeting and the hard work being carried out by the Committees highlights the commitment of the board to raise the visibility of the Section and make our presence known within APHA.
These are interesting and exciting times for the field of food and nutrition, and many things are happening in our Section.
Mary Story PhD, RD
Chair, Food and Nutrition Section