A Healthy Future for Kids in the Hispanic Community
On my recent trip to Miami, Florida, I had the opportunity to hold a White House Business Council roundtable, hosted by the South Florida Hispanic chamber of Commerce. The roundtable discussion focused on challenges and accomplishments within the Hispanic community, including access to credit, broadband, small business, agricultural markets, plant pests, and community outreach.
While in Miami I was also invited to speak at the Latino Health and Wellness Expo in Miami. “La Exposicion de Salud” was well attended with over 800 participants.
This was a great chance for me to share USDA’s commitment to the health and wellness of the Hispanic community – including the Obama administration’s Let’s Move! initiative, which is committed to ending childhood obesity within one generation so that our kids will grow up healthier.
We’re helping the First Lady encourage our children to be more physically active and give parents the information they need to make healthy choices for their families. We have also worked hard to improve the quality of school breakfast and lunch to be sure our children have access to healthy, yet affordable, fruits and vegetables.
And last year, USDA introduced “MyPlate” or “MiPlato”, a simple visual reminder to make healthy food choices when choosing meals.
As we continue to partner with folks around the country to help the Hispanic community and all Americans, I wanted to take this chance to share some of the work we’re doing to give our children a healthy future. I applaud the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for not only promoting and facilitating business in South Florida but also for all the support they provide to the Hispanic community.
Edward Avalos, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the Latino Health and Wellness Expo in Miami.
Last week, I addressed about 300 people at the Latino Health Equity Symposium in Long Beach CA. The topic of my talk was, “Disparities in Health and Nutrition in Latinos,” and I emphasized with statistics the higher rate of diabetes and obesity in Hispanics. I also had a chance to talk to several students and exposed them to the USDA programs in promoting healthy diet and regular physical activity by following the MyPlate and MiPlato icons and SuperTracker to evaluate their diet and activity. It was a receptive audience that seemed to appreciate what they heard. There is lot more needs to be done and we all have the responsibility to talk about the USDA’s programs, in order to reverse the trend of obesity in the United States. We are fully committed to the cause initiated by the First Lady.
Rajen Anand