March 2004

California Department of Health Services Cancer Prevention Nutrition Services Assistant Chief David Ginsburg adds a California 5 a Day Campaign pin to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's lapel.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger talked with staff of the California Nutrition Network and California 5 a Day Campaign during California Agriculture Day at the State Capitol. More than 35 booths at the March 16 event displayed information — and sometimes tastes — of what the state's agricultural interests have to offer. The governor, along with California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura and California Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Agency Kimberly Belshé, addressed the crowd and toured the diverse displays on food security, healthy eating, agriculture education and more.

Therese Llanes, public health nutrition consultant; Jaci McFerren, marketing specialist; Sonia Kuar, marketing specialist; and Valarie Scruggs, marketing manager, staff the Network's Ag Day booth, which was surrounded by displays of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Valarie Scruggs, marketing manager for the California African American 5 a Day Campaign, talked with the governor about the campaign's important work in reducing health disparities through targeted nutrition education. “I was honored to have the opportunity to share what the campaign does on behalf of California's African American community,” Scruggs said.

Peter Riddall, principal; Vergine Jarakian, assistant principal; and José Huizar, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board, participated in the healthy breakfast event.

In response to a Los Angeles County report illustrating the scope of LA's expanding food insecurity and obesity epidemic, the LA Collaborative for Healthy, Active Children came together to rally around a simple solution: eat breakfast.

The LA collaborative, comprised of more than 100 local health and nutrition organizations and schools, released “Taking the First Step with a Healthy Breakfast” on March 18 at Alexandria Avenue Elementary School. This publication examines the consequences of the overweight crisis, especially for children and offers a series of recommendations to increase breakfast consumption. Special guests and speakers at the event included former Olympians, school principals, health professionals and, most importantly, children enjoying a “second chance breakfast,” for those who did not have a chance to have a healthy breakfast before coming to school.

According to the LA Collaborative publication, children who skip or eat an unhealthy breakfast are at greater risk for being overweight. That concern is exaggerated in Los Angeles County, where two in five children are categorized as being at an unhealthy weight.

“This weight crisis is crippling our children, our families and our communities,” said Shirley Thornton, Ed.D., co-chair of the collaborative. Unhealthy children are less likely to graduate due to increases in absenteeism, poor academic performance and disciplinary problems, which ultimately influences school funding. Schools are also losing more than $174 million in state and federal funds as 742,000 low-income children across Los Angeles County do not participate in the School Breakfast Program. The collaborative recommends that policymakers and school administrators expand the School Breakfast Program to all youth, regardless of income, to increase the odds that children will not go hungry at school.

“The scope and complexity of this health crisis can be numbing,” admits Marvin Espinoza, co-chair of the Los Angeles Collaborative for Healthy Active Children. “But given the gravity of the situation, we have to take a concrete first step, and science points to a nutritious breakfast as one of the best strategies to address this problem.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture held the first in a series of forums across the country to seek input on USDA's role in helping Americans live longer, better and healthier lives. The forum for the Western Regional Office of USDA was held on Wednesday, March 17, in Manteca. It was led by the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Eric M. Bost; Communications and Governmental Affairs Director Steven Christensen; and Food and Nutrition Service Western Regional Office Administrator Allen Ng.

More than 50 people representing, programs, industry, advocates and parents attended the forum. Program staff from the California Department of Health Services, the California Department of Education and local California Nutrition Network programs provided comments and testimony on what USDA's role should be in nutrition education and obesity prevention. Program representatives were also able to provide summaries of their current activities. More than 30 participants spoke, including Desiree Backman, Dr.P.H., R.D., manager of the California 5 a Day Campaign, who said, “We are, without question, in the midst of a public health crisis that requires comprehensive, population-based, systemic approaches and solutions. The end result of our work is that healthy eating and active living become normal and natural because they are also the easiest choices for people to make, not the hardest. We hope to create an environment where consumer demand and business supply meet in a way that low-income consumers and communities are empowered, healthy business practices are rewarded in the marketplace, and government has acted responsibly and as a good steward to catalyze these social and economic changes.”

Other participants were Nancy Gelbard from the California Obesity Prevention Initiative; Melodee Steeples from Contra Costa County Health Department; Edie Jessup from Fresno Metro Ministries; Lee Mercer from Second Harvest; Jessica Reich from California Food Policy Advocates; Laurie True and Linnea Salick from CWA and WIC; and Phyllis Bramsom Paul from the California Department of Education.

Testimony showed the need for better access to healthy foods, increasing resources to support comprehensive nutrition education, reducing the paperwork for school meals and snacks, assuring healthy foods are offered as commodity foods, sharing consistent key messages across the various FNS programs and expanding eligibility for the nutrition programs administered by USDA.

Under Secretary Bost thanked the participants for their comments and indicated the importance of having those who are directly delivering programs involved in USDA's process.

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Kids receive Power Play! nutrition education materials during the Healthy Parks Initiative kickoff event.

The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation kicked off its Healthy Parks Initiative in response to the alarming rise in childhood obesity and decreasing level of physical fitness. Local and state leaders attended a March 26 press event to applaud the initiative and organizations committed to providing nutrition, recreation and health services at county parks.

“This is a joint effort between the recreation and agencies throughout the county to address the epidemic of overweight children,” said Timothy Gallagher, director of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, as he addressed the children and families. “With the Healthy Parks Program, local County Parks become community service ‘focal points’ in improving health in multi-faceted and multicultural ways,” he concluded.

Children were treated to visits from Nickelodeon stars and words of advice from Gale Devers, a former Olympian who advised youth take care of their bodies and make healthy eating choices.

The Healthy Parks Initiative, designed to help fight childhood obesity by encouraging more activity, has eleven pilot locations located in high-need areas within the county and where the majority of residents are low income. The California Children's 5 a Day-Power Play! Campaign is one of the county's partners in this effort. For more information, visit http://www.parks.co.la.ca.us.

A comprehensive report released in December 2003 examined California's cancer screening. It utilized data from the 2001 California Health Interview Study (CHIS), the largest state-level health survey in the nation. This report examines California screening rates for cervical, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers with respect to race and ethnicity, income, insurance coverage, usual source of care and English proficiency, along with reasons for not being screened. Some interesting findings from the report include:

• Asian women are five times as likely as white women to have never had a Pap test (22.8% vs. 4.5 %).
• Women with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL) have lower mammography rates than women with incomes at or above 200% FPL (69% vs. 78.8%).
• More than 2.3 Californian adults ages 50 and older (30%) report never having been screened for colorectal cancer.

The report demonstrates the need for policies and programs to raise screening rates of Californians who have low incomes, no health insurance, lack usual source of care and lack English proficiency. Culturally tailored programs are necessary due to the broad racial and ethnic disparities in cancer screening. In effort to increase awareness of the importance of early detection and improving the screening rates, the following three priorities were established:

• Educating people about the importance of cancer screening in the absence of any symptoms or problems.
• Focusing on immigrant communities (Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander; Latino; American Indian and Alaska Natives; and those who face English-language barriers).
• Support exemplary programs, such as “Every Woman Counts” administered by the California Department of Health Services, the largest public cancer screening program in the nation. Such programs provide free screening for breast and cervical cancer to low-income women with no or limited health insurance.

In addition to cancer screening, other protective measures can be taken to reduce cancer occurrence. According to the American Cancer Society Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention¹, diets high in fruits and vegetables and regular physical activity can reduce cancer risk. Some of the recommendations include:

• Eat five or more servings of a variety of vegetables and fruits each day.
• Engaging in 45 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous activity five or more days per week may further reduce risk of breast cancer and colon cancer.

Use the following link to access the full report:
http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/files/Cancer_Screening_Report.pdf. For more information about ‘Every Woman Counts,” visit http://www.dhs.ca.gov/cancerdetection/cervicalcancer.htm or call (800) 511-2300. For more information from the American Cancer Society, visit http://www.cancer.org.

¹Tim Byers, MD, MPH, et al. American Cancer Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention: Reducing the Risk of Cancer with Healthy Food Choices and Physical Activity. CA Cancer J Clin; 52:92-119.

More than 300 participants ran or walked around Lake Merritt in Oakland on March 13 at the annual “Running Is My High” event to benefit Native American health. “This annual event brings back the tradition of running for Native Americans who are now living in an urban environment,” said Christina Weahunt, director of nutrition and fitness for the area's Native American Health Center. “This is especially important since American Indians are the number one ethnic group affected by type 2 diabetes.”

Also honored during “Running is My High” was the tradition of Native American music, with drumming and song groups performing before and after the 5K/10K. One of the drumming groups also participated in the run, all single file with one hand on each other's right shoulders. “It was a great day to celebrate unity in promoting wellness and disease prevention,” Weahunt added.

The center, a Network funded local program, provides culturally appropriate wellness and nutrition services to 1,400 members of the Oakland's Native American community. For more information on the run/walk event and the center, please visit http://www.nativehealth.org.

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Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Stamp Program, an equal opportunity provider and employer, through the California Nutrition Network for Healthy, Active Families. For information on the California Food Stamp Program, call (800) 952-5253.

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