{"id":13740,"date":"2012-10-01T11:21:11","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T15:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=13740"},"modified":"2012-10-01T11:21:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T15:21:13","slug":"miami-dade-schools-launch-new-program-to-battle-childhood-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/10\/01\/miami-dade-schools-launch-new-program-to-battle-childhood-obesity\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami-Dade Schools Launch New Program To Battle Childhood Obesity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13741\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 231px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/10\/01\/miami-dade-schools-launch-new-program-to-battle-childhood-obesity\/carvalho-fb\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13741\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13741\" title=\"Carvalho FB\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/10\/Carvalho-FB.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"298\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Facebook.com<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Miami-Dade County Public Schools are beginning an in-school pilot program to educate fourth graders on nutrition, physical well-being and the appreciation of cultural diversity.<\/p>\n<p>The program is in partnership with the nonprofit Common Threads.<\/p>\n<p>The obesity program is one reason Miami-Dade <a href=\"http:\/\/superintendent.dadeschools.net\/index.php?page=1\">Superintendent Alberto Carvalho<\/a> will be honored this week for his work fighting childhood obesity in schools.<\/p>\n<p>Carvalho, who\u2019s been superintendent for four years in Miami, will be honored at Common Threads\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/events.commonthreads.org\/eventDetails.aspx?eventId=93\">annual World Festival event<\/a> tomorrow in Miami\u2019s Design District.<\/p>\n<p>Miami-Dade schools have a plan for a pilot program in select schools that will include 20- to 40-minute interactive lessons. The content incorporates Common Core State Standards in math and English.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The program is known as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commonthreads.org\/Pages\/Classes+Content\">Small Bites<\/a>. Fifteen lessons are incorporated into the regular school day once or twice a month.<\/p>\n<p>The idea is to give teachers an innovative way to support the Common Core while teaching students how to live longer, healthier lives.<\/p>\n<p>Linda Novick O\u2019Keefe, Executive Director of Common Threads, called the obesity issue a growing public health concern.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMiami-Dade County Public Schools has long demonstrated a strong commitment to innovative educational programming,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said, \u201cand we look forward to working with Superintendent Carvalho in the expansion of our programs through this in-school pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years.<\/li>\n<li>Overweight and obesity are the result of \u201ccaloric imbalance\u201d\u2014too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed\u2014and are affected by various genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors.<\/li>\n<li>Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for many types of cancer.<\/li>\n<li>Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70 percent of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.<\/li>\n<li>Schools play a particularly critical role by establishing a safe and supportive environment with policies and practices that support healthy behaviors. Schools also provide opportunities for students to learn about and practice healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.commonthreads.org\/\">Common Threads<\/a> was created in 2003 to educate children on nutrition and physical well-being. The nonprofit organization also provides after-school programming for kids ages to 8 through 12 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Miami-Dade County Public Schools are beginning an in-school pilot program to educate fourth graders on nutrition, physical well-being and the appreciation of cultural diversity. The program is in partnership with the nonprofit Common Threads. The obesity program is one reason Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho will be honored this week for his work fighting childhood obesity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[721,719,1157,720],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13750,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13740\/revisions\/13750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}