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If you aren't already a fan of "Dear Sugars" podcast, now is the time. Billed as "radically empathic advice," this episode takes on the tricky relationship between weight, dieting, body shame, healing and self acceptance. A must listen for women. In this episode: Her doctor categorized her as overweight when she was 5 years old. Her grandmother always introduced her as the “chubby one.” As an adult, she vacillates between moderation and binge-eating, restricting food some weeks, and gorging...

Great article from NPR last year ( August 1, 2017 ) about Rochester, NY, food bank Foodlink's partnership with their local school district to provide locally grown slice apples for school lunches. by ANYA SACHAROW Wayne County, New York, is the biggest producer of apples in the Empire State. Yet, in 2013 public school children in the county were being served apples from Washington on their lunch trays. At the end of the lunch period, the lovely, whole Washington apples ended up mostly...

Cius and Sako sauteed garlic, wilted spinach and mixed ricotta for baked ziti Thursday afternoon, as the Family and Consumer Sciences classroom filled with the chocolatey aroma of the brownies they had made earlier. They are just two of the students who have participated in Food for Thought, a program teacher Kate Paraggio started at the school last year “in an effort to provide a positive and empowering experience for students,” an explanation of the program said. “Middle school is a...

"The longer public health and public opinion focus their attentions on the personal-responsibility narrative of obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases, the longer we'll wait to see population level changes. " https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2016-09-27/check-your-privilege-before-talking-about-obesity-and-personal-responsibility

A new study shows that a fruit and vegetable prescription program can improve access to healthy foods for underserved children. The program, which was implemented in Flint, Michigan, could be replicated in other areas to address food insecurity in children. In August 2015, the Hurley Children’s Center – Sumathi Mukkamala Children’s Center, a residency training pediatric clinic associated with the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, relocated to the second floor of the...

"Once we've sourced our food, the next step is preparing it. This part of the process can also be an avenue for enhancing teen mental health – particularly when young people approach cooking as a creative activity that they enjoy doing with and for others. A recent study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology followed more than 650 young adults. Each day, they reported how much time they spent on creative activities and how they felt that day. The researchers found that the...

A young, well-meaning film maker I recently met is doing a documentary on food justice efforts around the country. Great idea. The big problem was his title: it referred to food insecure places as "wastelands." I often talk to people who care about the epidemic of unhealthy and overweight children. But they talk about it as if they and their parents don't know better or don't care. And that their communities are not rich in traditions, love, caring, or knowledge. This essay talks about how...

Purpose Healthy Eating Research (HER) is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) national program, which supports research on policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies with strong potential to promote the health and well-being of children at a population level. Specifically, HER aims to help all children achieve optimal nutrition and a healthy weight. HER grantmaking focuses on children and adolescents from birth to 18, and their families, with a priority on lower-income and racial...

By the summer of 2005, the Reverend Richard Joyner of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church realized he was conducting funerals twice a month—a startling number given his town’s tiny population. Nearly 300 souls call Conetoe (pronounced “ka-‘nee-ta”) home. The predominantly African American hamlet is situated in North Carolina’s Edgecombe County, where a quarter of households live below the poverty line and heart disease kills more 
20- to 39-year-olds than do car accidents. “I’ve closed...

http://kvpr.org/post/spanish-speakers-experience-discrimination-valley-food-pantries

This op-ed writer wonders if there is a way to talk about health risk and body size while still being non-shaming and body positive. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/opinion/weight-loss-body-positivity.html?action=click&contentCollection=opinion&contentPlacement=2&module=stream_unit&pgtype=sectionfront&region=stream&rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&version=latest