U.S. Representative Castle Cites Work of NHPS

Wilmington, Delaware
Friday, May 15, 2009 @ 12:00 AM EDT
by: Karen Bengston

Wilmington, DE - Nemours applauds Representative Mike Castle’s leadership in promoting healthy eating and physical activity for children during his testimony yesterday at the U.S. House of Representative’s Education and Labor Committee Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities’ hearing, Improving Child Nutrition Programs to Reduce Childhood Obesity. As the former Chair and a senior member of the Education and Labor Committee, Representative Castle has played a key role in improving the federal child nutrition programs authorized in the Child Nutrition Act, including the School Breakfast, National School Lunch Program, Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

As the lead witness at the hearing today, Rep. Castle recognized the key role that Nemours Health and Prevention Services (NHPS) has played in combating and preventing obesity in Delaware’s children. “In Delaware, great work is being done by Nemours in this area to promote healthy lifestyles in all the places children live, learn and play. Nemours was established in the will of Alfred I. Dupont and operates in Florida and Delaware. They make a vast difference.”

Rep. Castle championed wellness policies in schools when the Child Nutrition Act was last reauthorized in 2005. These wellness policies are currently being implemented in Delaware’s schools. NHPS works with district-level teams of superintendents, administrators, teachers, counselors, school nurses, parents and the students themselves to develop and implement wellness policies and provide training and educational tools that support policy and environmental changes to encourage healthier eating and more physical activity on school campuses.  These tools are available at www.growuphealthy.org.

This year’s planned reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act offers an opportunity to continue improving children’s health by raising standards for healthy eating and physical activity in the federal child nutrition programs. Just as Rep. Castle has worked to improve wellness in schools, Nemours looks forward to working with him and his colleagues on Capitol Hill to improve wellness in child care settings.

Debbie Chang, Nemours Vice President of Policy and Prevention said, “We greatly appreciate the Congressman’s leadership on behalf of children and we value our partnership with him. Working together, we will be able to make a difference for children.  We hope that the innovative health prevention programs in Delaware can serve as a model for the nation.”

Nemours Health & Prevention Services, a division of Nemours, one of the nation's largest pediatric health systems, works with families and community partners to help children grow up healthy. One of its initial areas of emphasis is childhood obesity prevention through the promotion of healthy lifestyles, the centerpiece of which is the 5-2-1-Almost None campaign. To learn more, visit www.GrowUpHealthy.org.

modified: Friday, May 15, 2009 @ 03:35 PM EDT
created: Friday, May 15, 2009 @ 03:30 PM EDT