6 Hours Left to Ask Michelle Obama to Include Time Outdoors

[Hot4huntin]

The Task Force on Childhood Obesity is taking comments until tonight at midnight. I wish I had found this sooner. Sportsmen and women need to unite and comment to include spending time outdoors, utilizing our State, Federal and National Parks' natural resources, hiking, boating, etc. in the fight against childhood obesity.

You can make a public comment by clicking HERE

It is kinda difficult to follow...


Info and Suggestions from National Wildlife Federal

Dear Colleague,

We have an opportunity today and tomorrow (Thu, 3/25 and Fri, 3/26 through midnight) to provide public comments about First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign and urge the newly created Task Force on Childhood Obesity to consider active time outdoors (play, recreation, etc.) as a key tool in addressing the obesity epidemic. The Task Force is exploring four pillars and we believe that “active time outdoors” fits well under the “increasing physical activity in schools and communities” category.

Here’s what you can do to help!

1) Take a look at the attached “request for comments” – it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the 16 questions posed in the “matters to be considered” section, but it is NOT necessary to answer every question! At the bottom of this email we’ve highlighted some of the key questions and also included the description of the four pillars and task force.

2) Consider submitting a comment as an individual, on behalf of your organization, working together with a coalition – whatever works for you. We have drafted a brief comment below which can be copied and pasted into the online comment form. Or you can build upon this and address some of the specific questions or start your own comment from scratch. If you are submitting as an individual, you might consider a more personal comment about playing outside when you were a child.

3) Forward this email (right now!) to your colleagues, partner organizations, friends and family that might be willing to submit a comment online as well.

Thanks for your consideration of this request to take action and urge the Task force on Childhood Obesity to consider healthy, active time outdoors as a tool to address childhood obesity.

Suggested Comments:

The average American child spends just four to seven minutes playing outside each day. In the last two decades, childhood has literally moved indoors with children spending more than seven hours per day in front of electronic media. Negative effects of an “indoor childhood” range from doubling of the obesity rate in kids to increased ADHD symptoms and depression. Studies show that outdoor time helps children grow lean and strong, enhances creativity and attention spans, decreases aggression, and boosts classroom performance. In short, being outside helps children to grow up happier and healthier—and we all benefit.

I encourage the Taskforce on Childhood Obesity to make active time outdoors, including outdoor recreation and unstructured outdoor play in nature, an integral part of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative, especially as part of the “increasing physical activity in schools and communities” objective. Children who play outdoors snack less, are more active, and burn more calories. It’s time to help parents take advantage of an old-fashioned, low-cost remedy to our children's obesity problem. The best part of outdoor play is that children don’t realize that they’re burning calories or “exercising.” They’re just having fun and connecting with family or friends. Getting kids playing and moving outside is an important societal issue that affects children of all races and socio-economic levels across America.

This is from the Request for Comment Page at Regulations.gov:

Task Force on Childhood Obesity: Request for Information

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, U.S. Department of Education.

ACTION: Joint request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Across the country, childhood obesity has reached epidemic
rates. On February 9, 2010, President Obama signed a Presidential Memo
establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity that directs Federal
agencies to create a comprehensive interagency national action plan to
solve the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation. The
Presidential Memo directs the Task Force to focus on four pillars:
Ensuring access to healthy, affordable food; increasing physical
activity in schools and communities; providing healthier food in
schools; and empowering parents with information and tools to make good
choices for themselves and their families. This notice announces a
request for public comments to assist the Task Force in making
recommendations on public and private sector actions that can be taken
to solve the problem.

DATES: To be assured of consideration, written comments must be
submitted or postmarked on or before March 26, 2010.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions
for submitting comments. Comments may also be submitted by fax or by
mail to: Director, Office of Executive Secretariat, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW., Room 116-A Whitten
Building, Washington, DC 20250 (FAX: 202-720-7166); however,
respondents are strongly encouraged to submit comments through http://
www.regulations.gov, as it will simplify the review of their input and
help to ensure that it receives full consideration. All comments
submitted in response to this notice will be included in the record and
will be made available to the public. Please be advised that the
substance of the comments and the identity of the individuals or
entities submitting the comments will be subject to public disclosure.
All comments will be made available publicly on the internet at http://
www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alexia Green, Office of the Executive
Secretariat, United States Department of Agriculture, 202-720-1570.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Nearly one-third of children in America are overweight or obese--a rate that has tripled in adolescents and more than doubled in younger children since 1980. One-third of all individuals born in the year 2000 or later will eventually suffer from diabetes over the course of their lifetime, while too many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems such as heart disease,
high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma. Without effective intervention, many more children will endure serious illnesses that will put a strain on our health-care system and reduce their quality of life.

President Obama has set a goal to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight. To reach that goal, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum on February 9, 2010, establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity that directs Federal agencies to create a comprehensive interagency national action plan to solve the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation. The Task Force is chaired by the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and composed of senior Federal officials representing the White House, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Education, as well as senior officials of other executive departments, agencies, or offices designated by the chair.

The Presidential Memorandum directs the Task Force to make recommendations that include, but are not limited to, meeting four objectives:

(1) Ensuring access to healthy, affordable food;
(2) increasing physical activity in schools and communities; (Time outdoors fits in here well)
(3) providing healthier food in schools; and
(4) empowering parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families.

The specific responsibilities of the Task Force are to:

1. Detail a coordinated strategy by executive departments and agencies to meet the objectives of the Task Force and identify areas for reform to ensure complementary efforts and avoid duplication, both across the Federal Government and between other public or nongovernmental actors;

2. Include comprehensive, multi-sectoral strategies from each member executive department, agency, or office and describe the status and scope of its efforts to achieve this goal;

3. Identify key benchmarks and provide for regular measurement,
assessment, and reporting of executive branch efforts to combat childhood obesity;

4. Describe a coordinated action plan for identifying relevant evidence gaps and conducting or facilitating needed research to fill those gaps;

5. Assist in the assessment and development of legislative, budgetary, and policy proposals that can improve the health and well-being of children, their families, and communities; and

6. Describe potential areas of collaboration with other public or
nongovernmental actors, taking into consideration the types of implementation or research objectives the Federal Government, other
public actors, or nongovernmental actors may be particularly well-situated to accomplish.

In addition, the Presidential Memo directs the Task Force to conduct
outreach with representatives of private and nonprofit organizations,
State, tribal, and local authorities, and other interested persons who
can assist with the Task Force's development of a detailed set of recommendations to solve the problem of childhood obesity.

Consistent with the directives of the Presidential Memorandum, the
Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, and Department of
Health and Human Services are publishing this Request for Information
on behalf of the Task Force to solicit comments and feedback to assist
the Task Force in making recommendations on public and private sector
actions that can be taken to solve the problem of childhood obesity.
Through this notice, guidance is provided as to the matters to be discussed and the categories of information with respect to which interested parties may submit comments.

The work of the Task Force will complement the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama as she leads a national public awareness effort to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity. Through the First Lady's Let's Move initiative, she will encourage involvement from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, as well as families to help support and amplify the work of the Federal Government in improving the health of the Nation's children. The campaign will give parents the information, motivation, and support they need to make sure that their children are healthy. It will help children be more physically active and allow them to make healthy food choices because healthy, affordable food will be available in every part of the country. For more information, please visit http://www.letsmove.gov/.


Matters To Be Considered: Information is being sought on the categories of information that follow. When submitting comments, interested parties are asked to restate the question and to provide any additional information deemed pertinent to their comment.

1. For each of the four objectives described above, what key topics
should be addressed in the report?

2. For each of the four objectives, what are the most important
actions that Federal, State, and local governments can take?

3. Which Federal government actions aimed at combating childhood
obesity are especially in need of cross-agency coordination?

4. For each of the four objectives, what are the most important
actions that private, nonprofit, and other nongovernmental actors can
take?

5. For each of the four objectives, what strategies will ensure
that efforts taken by all of the entities mentioned above reach across
geographic areas and to diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and
geographic groups, including children who are at highest risk of
obesity and children with disabilities?

6. What goals should we set within each objective to ensure that we
meet our overall goal of solving the problem of childhood obesity in
this Nation in a generation?

7. What concrete, specific actionable recommendations or guidelines
would help parents reduce the risk that their child will become
overweight or obese and how can their effectiveness be measured?

8. What are the key benchmarks by which we should measure progress
toward achieving those goals?

9. What important factors should be considered that do not easily
fit under one of the four objectives?

10. What are the key unanswered research questions that need to be
answered with regard to solving childhood obesity and how should the
Federal Government, academia, and other research organizations target
their scarce resources on these areas of research?

11. In areas or communities that currently have a high incidence of
childhood obesity, what is the best explanation of why particular
children do not become obese?

12. Specifically with regard to objective 1 (empowering parents):
How can Federal, State, and local governments, the private sector, and
community organizations best communicate information to help parents
make healthy choices about food and physical activity?

13. Specifically with regard to objective 2 (healthier food in
schools): What are the most promising steps that can be pursued by the
Federal, State, and local governments, schools, communities, the
private sector, and parents to ensure that children are eating healthy
food in schools and child care settings?

14. Specifically with regard to objective 3 (access to healthy,
affordable food): What are the biggest challenges to enhancing access
to healthy and affordable food in communities across America, and what
are the most promising strategies to overcome these challenges?

15. Specifically with regard to objective 4 (physical activity):
What steps can be taken to improve quality physical education and
expand opportunities for physical activity during the school day, in
local communities and neighborhoods, and in outdoor activities and
other recreational settings?

16. What other input should the Task Force consider in writing the
report?

Excellent Comments from Texas Wildlife Association:

March 26, 2010

To: Task Force on Childhood Obesity

The Texas Wildlife Association (TWA) is a non-profit conservation group composed primarily of landowners, hunters, wildlife managers and conservationists whose members own or control over 35 million acres of private land in Texas. TWA wants to express our support for fighting childhood obesity by Encouraging Outdoor Play, Addressing The Nation’s Significant Natural Resources Illiteracy, And Reconnecting Children To The Land.

Texas kids in urban and rural areas are becoming disconnected from the land, and our incredible Texas natural resources are no longer known or understood. Today’s children spend less time in nature than any other generation in human history. Simultaneously over the past 20 years, the time children spend outside has fallen by 50 percent, while the time spent in front of electronic media has grown to more than six hours daily.

During the same time period, the rate of obesity among children has more than doubled, and the rate of childhood diabetes has increased. Children are also losing many of the documented benefits of learning and playing in nature, such as improved academic achievement, more vigorous and cooperative play, and reduction of attention deficit symptoms.

This generation change has meant steadily declining park visitation numbers and hunting and fishing license subscriptions. As Texas continues to urbanize, demands on Texas natural resources will increase, and it will become even more important that the next generation of Texans understands how to utilize and conserve Texas natural resources.

We propose outdoor play be significantly increased in combination with developing a plan to provide children with opportunities to spend more time outdoors and understand our natural resources. We would accomplish this by developing a partnership led by federal and state agencies with representatives from private sector organizations. The group would be charged with developing a plan to increase opportunities for outdoor recreation, scientific study, and outdoor learning for children; and increasing understanding of our natural resources. The Partnership for Children in Nature has been successfully implemented in several states, and using this format we propose exploring the expansion of the Partnership with existing resources that increase children’s time outdoors while building an understanding of conservation.

Thank you for your consideration, and you may contact Kirby Brown or Helen Holdsworth for additional information. Yours for healthy children in the outdoors and in conservation of our natural resources.

Sincerely,

Kirby Brown
Vice President for Public Policy
Texas Wildlife Association
2800 NE Loop 410, Ste 105
San Antonio, TX 78218
210/826-2904

Please take time to comment!

[bountyhunter]

Thanks Dena, I got a comment submitted.