Wednesday, April 13, 2011

History

Background

If you look out your window on a sunny, summer afternoon, what will you see? You will likely see trees, green grass and parked cars, but what you won’t see is children. This is likely not the typical summer afternoon that you can recall from your childhood. What’s happening? Where are the children?

It is highly likely that these children are among the almost 90 percent of students who, according to a 2006 Georgia Youth Fitness Assessment, were not physically fit ,with only 40 percent participating in adequate physical activity. And what’s more, those “missing children” are probably one of the 37.3 percent of Georgia youth who are now overweight.

As adults in the community, we cannot sit on the sidelines watching the childhood obesity number steadily rise in Georgia. We cannot accept the fact that childhood and adolescent obesity rates are higher in Georgia than in the United States entirely! And we cannot help but realize the harsh reality that children who are minorities and from rural areas are more likely to be obese (according to the childhood obesity statistics provided by the Child & Family Policy Initiative, Childhood and Adolescent Prevalence in the United States and Georgia under Governor Perdue).

We had to take action that could make a significant, positive difference in reversing the exorbitant childhood obesity rates in Georgia.

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