This year’s conference will focus on corporate wellness, portraying this  idea in an engaging and creative manner. National and local leaders within  the health and wellness arena will serve as guest speakers and panelists.

For additional information, the brochure including the agenda and registration form can be found here.

This conference is something you don’t want to miss!

1.     Click on the link to the SC Healthy Schools Awards. Read through the instructions on the page.

2.     Click on the link to the criteria that is appropriate for your school’s grade level (Elementary or Middle/High)

3.     Read all the way through the criteria document first to determine which level (bronze, silver, gold) is appropriate for your school.  Most schools should be eligible for the bronze level award and many will meet the criteria for the silver level!

4.     Once you have reviewed the criteria you will find the links to the applications for each level at the end of the criteria document. The application is a survey tool and is easy to complete!

You can now access the application all year long! We will check for new applications at the end of each month from August through May and review and notify your school of their award status. This process allows for your school to seek the first award level and then to apply for the next level of award as soon as you meet that criteria without having to wait for next year!

Healthy School Award Schools will receive a banner and a window cling for the office window designating their award level.

If you need assistance or have questions please contact Jay Daniels at danielje@dhec.sc.gov or Lynn Hammond at lhammond@ed.sc.gov .

May is also Older Americans Month and this year’s theme is “Never Too Old to Play.”  As we recognize the accomplishments of older Americans, one way to encourage them to find more ways to stay engaged and active while fighting Arthritis is the “Walk With Ease” Program.

Walk With Ease is a very popular program, but there is still space available.  Download the flyer for more information and complete the application to attend the workshop.

But addressing the issue won’t necessarily require building parks or fitness centers. It could be as simple as unlocking a gate.

Most local schools have playgrounds, gyms, fields, basketball courts and other open space, but school officials often close these facilities after school because of legitimate concerns over cost, vandalism, security and liability in case of injury.

It means kids have a harder time being active after school — but there is a solution. Many schools and local governments have partnered to create shared-use agreements that allow school playgrounds and gyms to be used after-school to support physical activity among all community members.

Crafting and implementing joint use agreements can be tricky — but PreventObesity.net is here to help. Attend a webinar at 2 p.m. EST on May 17 designed to explain the concept of shared-use agreements, offer tips for reaching out to schools and governments to create them and provide help with navigating local laws and regulations to craft them.

Manal Aboelata from the Prevention Institute will join PreventObesity.net’s Rebecca Frank to moderate the webinar. Scheduled speakers include Dr. John Spengler from the University of Florida, Dr. Jamie Chriqui from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Genoveva Islas-Hooker, from the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program.

The study, “Assessing the Economics of Obesity and Obesity Interventions,” addresses how policymakers measure the benefits of policies to address chronic diseases. Authors Michael O’Grady and James Capretta describe how Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimates, which generally cover a 10-year period, do not capture the costly complications of chronic diseases, including those associated with obesity. Those complications often take more than 10 years to manifest themselves. They suggest that a 25-year budget window would be more appropriate and effective when there is strong and reliable disease modeling to inform longer-term estimates. In assessing how cost estimates are conducted, the study also examines the large and still-growing health care costs associated with obesity and catalogues an array of programs to prevent and treat it.

O’Grady served as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2003 to 2005. Capretta served as an Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2004.

“Despite the abundance of evidence that obesity is crippling America’s fiscal and physical health—something the authors deftly describe—policies to reduce its prevalence have often been hampered by our federal budget scoring process,” said Stephanie Silverman, co-founder of the Campaign to End Obesity. “By widening our lens to reflect the reality of health care costs, we can target meaningful prevention programs that yield the greatest cost savings and lessen the burden of the obesity epidemic on our economy.”

“While the CBO 10-year budget window may be appropriate for many federal programs, when the health and financial impacts of a disease play out over longer periods, policymakers need a longer time horizon to get an accurate view of their policy options,” remarked O’Grady and Capretta.

Over the past half century, the percentage of Americans who are obese has been on a pronounced upward trajectory. In 1961 about 14.3 percent of the public was obese or extremely obese; by 2008 more than 40 percent fell into these categories. As a result, obesity-related medical costs in the United States also have climbed. Recent estimates show that they make up almost 10 percent of all medical spending and may amount to $147 billion per year. Under CBO’s most optimistic cost modeling scenario, per-person, obesity-related medical spending is set to grow by 59 percent from 2007 levels, or an average of 3.6 percent a year.

These data forewarn of a looming crisis for the long-term financial viability of public and private health insurance programs as spending growth outstrips revenue growth. Particularly, the authors note that obesity has a large enough effect on cost trends that it can make the difference between a health care program being financially viable or vulnerable in the long term.

Data included in the study indicate that past increases in obesity rates are responsible for $34.3 billion and $27.6 billion in additional spending in Medicare and Medicaid, respectively. Obesity also contributes to $74.6 billion in higher spending by private health insurers.

O’Grady and Capretta also conducted an extensive examination of peer-reviewed programs aimed at addressing or preventing obesity, including government, community and workplace wellness programs. The authors reviewed the programs’ clinical benefits, cost-effectiveness and economic considerations and found that certain interventions can be both clinically successful and cost-effective. The authors note that it is extremely important to use both success and cost-effectiveness data to inform future policy action.

“If we are to address the problem of obesity in any kind of an effective way, it will be through the sober, clear-headed analysis of experts like Capretta and O’Grady,” noted Tevi Troy, former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who penned the study’s foreword. “The authors have given policymakers real choices for how to proceed.”

“It’s crucial for the nation to recognize that efforts to prevent obesity and related health problems are vital for our health and economic future,” said James S. Marks, senior vice president and director of the Health Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the study. “Using the best economic data available, this report shows that reversing the nation’s obesity epidemic can have a strong return on investment.” Michael J. O’Grady, PhD, is a senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago and Principal at O’Grady Health Policy, LLC. James C. Capretta, MA, is a Principal at Civic Enterprises, LLC and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The executive summary and full study are available on the Campaign to End Obesity’s website, www.obesitycampaign.org, along with the study foreword by Tevi Troy.

The RWJF-sponsored report, Accelerating Progress on Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation, highlights five key goals for reversing the epidemic:

• Make physical activity an integral and routine part of life.
• Create food and beverage environments that ensure healthy food and beverage options are the routine, easy choice.
• Transform messages about physical activity and nutrition.
• Expand the role of health care providers, insurers and employers in obesity prevention.
• Make schools a national focal point for obesity prevention.

Each goal is buttressed by a specific recommendation and strategies for achieving those recommendations. The recommendations and strategies target all sectors of society, including policy-makers at the local, state and federal level businesses, schools, doctors and parents.

“This report tells us now, we have the science to make the changes we need,” said James S. Marks, MD, MPH, RWJF senior vice president and director of the Foundation’s Health Group. “It is now up to us as leaders to make those changes in our communities.”

The full report, a summary, practical guides for taking action and other materials are available for free on the IOM website.

Check out their Reports at a Glance!

Check out some tools to help open up the stairways for physical activity.

“This Upstate retailer has offered a portion of one day’s  pre-tax revenue to promote health, sustainable agriculture and environmental  conservation,” said Holly Harring, Ph.D. and statewide coordinator of the Farm  to School program. “On May 8, Whole Foods Market on Woodruff Road will donate 5  percent of each sale. Every shopper will be demonstrating their support with  every purchase made that day.”

According to Dr. Harring, the S.C. Farm to School program  facilitates connections between farms and schools to improve the nutritional  quality of school meals while supporting the state’s farmers. The program  currently supports partnerships with 52 schools and more than 40 participating  farms across the state.

“Farm to School helps provide healthy options for students  and increases the share of the food dollar coming back to our own farmers,”  said Hugh Weathers, S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture. “With millions of meals  served in lunchrooms across the state, school foodservice working with local  farmers has the potential to make a difference in building stronger bodies and,  at the same time, building stronger local economies.”

“Four times a year, Whole Foods Market Greenville donates 5%  of a day’s sales to give back to our local communities by providing support to  nonprofit organizations,” said Keri Moore, marketing coordinator for Whole  Foods.

“Proceeds will go toward efforts to sustain and support the  expansion of the Farm to School program to more schools in the Greenville area  and across South Carolina,” Harring said. Currently, Chenydale Elementary and  St. Anthony of Padua are two Greenville-area schools receiving grant funds from  the program.

“We remain dedicated to instilling the value of health and  agriculture among children,” Harring said, “and we need support from our  community partners to continue this work.”

S.C. Farm to School originated as a two-year project funded  by a grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and  supported by collaborative efforts from the state’s Department of Education,  Department of Agriculture, Clemson University’s Youth Learning Institute and  DHEC. The program works to increase the number of farmers certified to provide  locally grown products to schools, provide education to foodservice staff and  teachers on Farm to School practices, and develop hands-on learning activities  to promote healthy eating among school children. More can be found online at http://scfarmtoschool.com/.