Welcome to Let's Move! Museums & Gardens

Let’s Move! is a comprehensive initiative, launched by the First Lady Michelle Obama, dedicated to solving the problem of obesity within a generation, so that children born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams. Sure, this is an ambitious goal. But with your help, we can do it. Let’s Move! is about putting children on the path to a healthy future during their earliest months and years. Giving parents helpful information and fostering environments that support healthy choices. There are an estimated 17,500 museums in the U.S. which collectively host at least 850 million visits each year. Through the Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens initiative, museums, zoos, public gardens, historic sites and science and technology centers can join the call to action in fighting childhood obesity.    Monthly Let's Move! Museums & Gardens Newsletters (sign up here!) January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 April 2012 (PDF, 105 KB) March 2012 (PDF, 593KB) February 2012 (PDF, 500KB) January 2012 (PDF, 679KB) December 2011 (PDF, 1.0MB) November 2011 (PDF, 858KB) October 2011 (PDF, 2.2 MB)   From the White House Blog: First Lady Michelle Obama Talks Healthy Habits with Toddlers November 2, 2011 View additional photos

Watch now! Watch Michelle Obama's initiative announcement video.   Available now! Use this activity search engine, created by howtosmile.org, to find Let’s Move! activities from science museums and similar organizations.

How do museums and gardens contribute to solving the problem of childhood obesity?

With their impressive reach and great potential for impact, museums and gardens can launch community efforts to fight childhood obesity using interactive exhibits, outdoor spaces, gardens and programs that encourage families to eat healthy foods and increase physical activity.

Click here to learn more about museum and garden projects to combat childhood obesity.

 

Project Goals

• Overarching Participation Goal: In one year, 2,000 museums and gardens will be Let’s Move! Museums and Let’s Move! Gardens.
• Goal 1: Each year, 200 million visits will be made to Let’s Move! Museums and Let’s Move! Gardens that have committed to offering interactive experiences that promote healthy eating and physical activity.
• Goal 2:  Each year, 20 million participants will engage in programming that includes healthy food choices and physical activity with emphasis on afterschool, summer and school-based programs.
• Goal 3: Each year, 90% of Let’s Move! Museums and Let’s Move! Gardens that offer food service will already offer or will change their menu to offer food options that reflect healthy choices (for example, the Centers for Disease Control guidance on procurement pages 19 – 21).
• Goal 4: Each year 90% of Let’s Move! Museums and Let’s Move! Gardens that offer food service will incorporate interpretation about healthy food choices.

 

How can museums and gardens get involved?

Sign up to become a Let's Move! Museum or Let's Move! Garden.

Click here to see a list of institutions that have already made the commitment.

Museums and gardens are core community institutions. They are trusted in their communities and have the capacity to influence real and sustained behavior change. This initiative is intended to capture what is happening in museums and gardens and also to encourage new activity.

Institutions are encouraged to take actions across all four priorities! To become a Let’s Move! Museum or Let’s Move! Garden, all institutions must select at least one of the first two priorities. Institutions that serve food should also select at least one of the second two priorities.

The four priorities:

• Eat healthy, get active exhibits
• Learning about healthy food choices and physical activity through afterschool, summer and other programs
• Healthy food service
• Learning about healthy food choices and physical activity using food service operation