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Eating Disorders Blog

Monday, November 30, 2009

Rachel Ray and New York City Public Schools Tackle Childhood Obesity

Television chef Rachel Ray and New York City public schools are teaming up to revamp school lunches as a strategy for addressing childhood obesity. Ray's foundation, Yum-O, is partnering with the New York Department of Education in a program designed to provide healthy and delicious meals to students at approximately 1,600 public schools in New York City.

Experts estimate the current rate of childhood obesity in New York City schools to be a staggering 40 percent.

Eric Goldstein, chief executive for NYC's Department of Education School Food program commented: "Roughly 40 percent of our students are either overweight [or] obese and, we found working with the health department, that there is a correlation between academic performance and obesity."

Ray is contributing star power and menus to the new program. When the project launched on Oct. 26, 2009, an incredible 648,121 servings of Ray's first meal for the program -- roasted chicken soft tacos with vegetarian beans, roasted corn, steamed broccoli and a Yum-O ranch sauce -- were served in one day at New York City schools.

Goldstein commented: "She is a real star, and that star power is incredible to see. Everybody wanted to come and meet Rachael Ray ... and I witnessed it firsthand, with serving meals. We served more meals that day than I can remember in a long, long time."

(Source: www.abcnews.go.com)

Labels: childhood-obesity, schools

Posted By: Aspen Education Group

Comments:

Bry on 5/21/2010
I think we need to look at what sorts of drinks we allow our kids to have, in and out of school. No more of these sugary drinks and sodas, lets get our kids to appreciate some good H2O. We've got to market to them how good water is for them, which is exactly how the company "Wat-aah" is appealing to kids: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BC3796CB622E57BB
noel on 12/3/2009
Great to see people are caring for this issue. Rachel, do you feel that a complete breakfast should be the start of every child's day?

It is believed by most experts that this is where boosting the metabolism starts.

I do know that, when children eat breakfast, test scores go up, retention increases, behavioral problems go down,...etc.

Thanks for caring!