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Monday, October 1, 2012

Tackling childhood obesity -- a fight we must all engage in

 

Written by Amy Nakamoto 
Executive Director  

As the fall months march on and we continue to embark on a season full of emotionally expressive poetry and spoken word and game days filled with laughter and community members, we can’t let up the brakes on our larger mission here at DC SCORES.

We aim to instill self-expression, physical fitness, and a sense of community within and amongst our participants citywide. The month of September marked the third annual National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. While it feels odd to have a month be named for a devastating social, ecological, and health trend in our country, it is important to acknowledge the multi-layered issue in its entirety and take pause of where we all play a role in this issue.

At DC SCORES, we feel it’s our duty to instill a love of sports, movement, and activity in our students’ lives. We choose the game of soccer to do this, and support soccer instruction with on-and-off-field nutrition and health games.

It is having an impact.

After one year of participating in DC SCORES, students can run longer and have either maintained or reduced their BMI (body mass index) levels. Providing at least 220 minutes of physical activity per week through our after-school program is making a necessary difference.

Childhood obesity is not only about getting healthy and having our young people on the right track ... it is about:

  • National security
  • Education
  • Nutrition
  • The economy
  • Mental health
  • And much more
The cost of NOT being more aware of the intricacies and web of solutions to reverse the obesity trend would be damaging to our young people, but also to the very well-being of all of us as a nation.

Please get informed, engage in the conversation, and if you, like us, feel that physical fitness and activity should be a right afforded to every child – come see and hang out with our kids daily as a show of support . . .

Here are a couple sites you should check out to get informed:

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