The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is doing their part to combat childhood obesity by serving students a healthy breakfast in the classroom during the first 15–20 minutes of their school day.
Statistics show that 35 to 38 percent of U.S. kids skip breakfast, a problem that medical experts say contributes to childhood obesity.
The program, called “First Class Breakfast,” started earlier this month and adds 10 more elementary and middle schools to the program every week. By September, more than 130,000 students at 220 HISD schools will be eating breakfast in the classroom; more than any other district in the U.S., says the Food Research Action Center.
Dr. Terry Grier, HISD superintendent of schools, launched the Houston program after seeing success from a similar program when he worked at the San Diego School District.
“Not only did the kids enjoy and eat the breakfast when we served it to them directly in the classroom,” he says, “But their test scores improved and so did their behavior.”
At HISD, they’ve already seen improved test scores at nine schools where the program has been in place for several years.
Learn more about the First Class Start program and Michelle Obama's childhood anti-obesity campaign.
Photo of Dr. Terry Grier eating with school child is courtesy of HISD
Here at Healthy Houston Kids headquarters, we used the month of February to gather reader feedback about what you, our readers, would like to hear more about.
The votes are in and here are the child health topics you said were your biggest concerns and interests:
• Nutrition/obesity 60%
• Reviews of books, mobile apps 30%
• Exercise 30%
• Safety, teens and mental health 10%
Note: The final results don’t add up to 100% because we let readers choose more than one topic.
Given recent national attention to childhood obesity, it did not surprise us that most readers want to hear more about the topics of nutrition, obesity prevention and exercise. It did surprise us that no one voted to hear more about babies and their health issues since our statistics show that those are often popular topics.
Looking forward, we plan to add more updates about exercise classes and outdoor activities for your children or the whole family. You also may have already noticed a few more blog posts on childhood nutrition in the last few weeks.
Thanks for your feedback and please always feel free to suggest topics you’d like Healthy Houston Kids to cover by posting a comment or writing us at HealthyHoustonKids (at) gmail (dot) com.
Allergy season is back, or coming soon, depending on your family's sensitivities. So, we updated a popular post from last year for all our sniffling readers.
It's easy and quick to check Houston's air quality before you take your child with allergies or asthma outside. A bevy of cool and convenient Websites track allergen and pollution levels across the Houston
Try these for starters:
- AirNow
- Allergy & Asthma Associates
- American Lung Association - State of the Air Campaign
- City of Houston
- Pollen.com
- Texas Commission on Environmental Quality - air quality
- Texas Commission on Environmental Quality - ozone levels
- Weatherbug
Note: Thanks to the Air Quality Work Group for their suggestions with this post.
