It is my pleasure to update you on the activities of the Food and Nutrition Section. I hope many of you enjoyed the terrific Annual Meeting in San Diego last October. Many thanks to all who presented, and a big thank you to Janice Adams-King for organizing all of this – being program chair for the Annual Meeting is an incredible service to FNS. Congratulations too to the recipients of the awards (Marion Baer, Leslie Mikkelsen, Laurie True, and Matthew Lapierre) – it is always special to be recognized by one’s colleagues and inspires all of us. Thank you to Deirdre Chester and Sarah Samuels for organizing this wonderful annual event.

It is hard to believe, but we are already planning the sessions for the annual meeting in Philadelphia in November. The theme for the conference is Water and Public Health. In addition to sessions on water and nutrition, we will have sessions on familiar topics like nutrition and food policy, food security and hunger, child and adult overweight, and vitamin D and health, to name a few.  We are also working with the Physical Activity SPIG to co-sponsor a session on innovative technological approaches to assessment and intervention in physical activity and diet. FNS always needs reviewers for abstracts submitted to the Annual Meeting, so please e-mail Alyssa Ghirardelli if you would like to serve as a reviewer or if you would like to moderate a session. We are also making plans for our annual awards banquet and will co-sponsor the March of Dimes Agnes Higgins award presentation with the Maternal and Child Health Section. Last year’s recipient, Susan Carlson, gave a very interesting presentation on Improving Maternal and Fetal Nutrition: The DHA Story. This is a unique opportunity to learn about state-of-the-art science and enjoy a nice evening of food and wine with colleagues.

Each year, after the Annual Meeting, new members become leaders in our Section. Please welcome Sibylle Kranz as FNS chair-elect; Susan Kayman as secretary and chair of the Committee on the Public Health Nutrition Workforce; Lynn Fredericks, Katrina Holt, Susan Kayman, Sibylle Kranz, Angela Odoms-Young, and Joan Trendell as Section Councilors; Noel Chavez, Sarah Samuels, and Gail Woodward-Lopez as Governing Councilors; Marsha Spence and Katie Kavanagh as Awards and Social Committee chairs; Patti Risica as Communications Committee chair; Stephanie Jilcott as exhibit coordinator (for the booth at the Annual Meeting); Sara Fein and Janice Adams-King as Food Safety Committee chairs; Noel Chavez as Legislation Policy Committee chair; Sibylle Kranz and Katrina Holt as Membership Committee chairs; Sarah Forrestal as newsletter editor; Wendy Johnson-Askew, Alyssa Ghirardelli, and Rachel Fisher as Program Committee chairs; Barbara Laraia as Strategic Plan Committee chair; Carole Garner as representative to NANA and chair of the Committee on Childhood Overweight; Sue Foerster as Action Board representative; Geraldine Perry-Allen as Science Board representative; Lissa Ong as liason to the Maternal and Child Health Section; and Daniel Lau as our student representative. As you can see, there are many opportunities to become involved in the Section. Please e-mail me if you would like to join a committee or learn more about serving in the leadership positions.

In addition to our monthly conference calls, we will have our mid-year meeting at APHA in Washington, D.C. on March 13. This meeting provides an opportunity to meet with APHA staff and discuss activities of FNS. This year we plan to review existing APHA policies related to food and nutrition and discuss the status of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. APHA posts all policies in a policy statement database that can be searched on the APHA Web site. At the Annual Meeting, our Governing Councilors attend sessions and vote on newly proposed policies. In the past, members of our Section have written policies on important topics like reducing sodium in the American diet, nutrition labeling in fast food restaurants, and supporting the WHO global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. Please do consider writing a policy statement in your area of expertise if you think APHA is the appropriate organization to sponsor. It is also possible for APHA to support other policies at the federal, state and local levels. For example, APHA wrote a letter on behalf of FNS to support the new WIC food packages. Such support is important for establishing best policies and practices in public health nutrition today.

This newsletter is also a great way to share updates about your research or practice activities. Deadlines for the next newsletters are June 1 and Sept. 14. Please e-mail Newsletter Editor Sarah Forrestal if you would like to contribute – definitely encourage your students to share their activities too, as Shoghig Balkian from Tufts University did in this edition.

In closing, please do consider becoming more involved in FNS. It doesn’t take a lot of time, and it is an opportunity to work with wonderful people all over the United States who are involved in many different areas of public health nutrition. The Section always benefits from new people and new ideas.

All the best for 2009,