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Accomplishments

Since the launch of Let’s Move! in February 2010, a great deal has been accomplished from providing children with healthier food and greater opportunities for physical activity to providing better information to families about health and nutrition and improving access in local communities to healthy, affordable food. Every day, all around the country, steps are being taken to effect change at the key points of a child’s life—from schools, to grocery stores, to parks to kids TV.

Let’s Move! will continue to work towards the goals outlined in the Childhood Obesity Task Force. Some of the accomplishments in the first year of the Let’s Move! initiative include:

Supporting Healthy Schools

  • The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation, was signed into law so all kids have healthier food in school and even more have access to a healthy lunch.
  • Efforts are underway to double the number of schools that meet the Healthier US School Challenge and schools from New Orleans to New York have signed up to help students get active.
  • Three of the largest food service providers have committed to improving the food they provide to schools to meet recommended levels of fat, sugar and whole grains over the next five years, and to double the fruits and vegetables they serve over the next 10 years.
  • A coalition of the Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, the Food, Family and Farming Foundation and the United Fresh Produce Association has committed over the next three years to put 6,000 salad bars in schools across the country, making fresh vegetables a more accessible choice for children.
  • Nearly 2,000 chefs have volunteered to help schools in their community become healthier through the Chefs Move to Schools program which pairs professional chefs with schools to help educate kids about making healthy food choices and engages the entire school community to help create healthier school menus.
  • Businesses are stepping up to help schools meet their challenges, like All-Clad, which has donated 1,000 demonstration cooking kits for chefs who are participating in Chefs Move to Schools.

Making Healthy Foods Accessible and Affordable

  • Parents are demanding better food choices and Let’s Move! is working with businesses to meet the challenge. Examples of this include Walmart’s Nutrition Charter, that is designed to bring healthier and more affordable foods to the 140 million customers that shop at their stores each week and the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation pledging to reduce annual calories by 1.5 trillion within the next five years.
  • For the first time in decades, the White House has a Kitchen Garden. The garden has generated over a thousand pounds of food, and most importantly, kids have had a hand in seeing where their food comes from, learning it’s not scary – it’s actually fun.

Increasing Physical Activity

  • Let’s Move! is working towards the goal of one million Americans earning the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) by September 2011. Organizations across the country are helping meet the goal: the National Football League (NFL) alone is signing up 200,000 kids.
  • Teaming up with Let’s Move! Disney, the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) are spreading the word through public service announcements (PSAs) airing nationwide, through this outreach, kids are inspired by their favorite actors and athletes to play sports and get active.
  • Through Let’s Move Outside, families and communities are being encouraged to take advantage of America’s great outdoors—which abound in every city, town and community.
  • Let’s Move! is working with mayors and community groups to build or adopt playgrounds so kids have safe places to play and be active. Communities are also being encouraged to join Safe Routes to School so more kids can bike and walk to school.

Spreading the Message

  • Nearly 500 communities across America have signed up for Let’s Move Cities and Towns. Through this program, local leaders are bringing Let’s Move! to their community and making commitments to significant changes in support of their communities’ health.
  • A series of new PSAs were released to help parents and caregivers make healthy food choices and increase physical activity.
  • More and more families are seeing food and beverage packages with clear calorie information on grocery store shelves through a commitment from the American Beverage Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute to place clear calorie information on beverage and food packaging.
  • More and more doctors are screening children for BMI during Well Child Visits. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians have pledged to have 100% of their doctors screen for BMI. To make it easier for families, the new Affordable Care Act requires all new health insurance plans to cover screening for childhood obesity and counseling from doctors.
  • Through Let’s Move Faith and the Communities, faith-based and community-based organizations have committed to walk three million miles, complete 500,000 PALAs, and host 10,000 community gardens or farmers markets.