The move brings the Center and its programs closer to the population it serves.  It also creates an intersection of sorts in the city between the University and regional social services — the Red Cross and United Way are located next door.

You can read a URMC press release about the move here.

You can see the ads and read about the campaign at the Foundation’s “Be a Healthy Hero” website and read a D&C article about the yesterday’s announcement here - full text of the article after the jump.

Democrat & Chronicle, October 15, 2008

Ad campaign by Rochester foundation targets childhood obesity
By Justina Wang

As part of a $50 million campaign to drive down the rate of childhood obesity in Monroe County, a series of ads on TV stations will attempt to rouse parents with a mix of bleak warnings and upbeat messages about their kids’ health.

In one commercial, the camera pans through empty gyms and swimming pools while a narrator gravely wonders about the life expectancy of the younger generation: “What happens next is up to you.”

In another, children dance and play to an energetic jingle about eating more fruits and vegetables.

The dual message, developed after focus groups found that many of the 1,200 Monroe County parents interviewed were reluctant to address their children’s weight issues, will raise concern while offering help, said Bill Murtha, CEO of Roberts Communications, which produced the commercials. The strategy is to “shake them first, then give them a hug,” Murtha said.

The ads unveiled Tuesday are the latest addition to the Greater Rochester Health Foundation’s 10-year anti-obesity campaign, which also includes funding children’s fitness and nutrition programs, and pushing for healthier school lunch menus and safer play areas. Spurred by statistics that show one in three Monroe County children are overweight or obese, the organization – one of Rochester’s wealthiest private foundations – has promised up to $5 million a year for efforts that address the problem.

For each of the next two to three years, about $1 million of those funds will go toward the public awareness ads, which will also run on the radio, in print and online. Another $750,000 over the next three years will help pediatricians talk to parents about obesity, foundation representatives announced Tuesday.

“There is no other way to galvanize the community,” said Monroe County health department director Dr. Andrew Doniger. “This is one of the largest public health campaigns that has ever happened in Monroe County.”

The ads, targeted at mothers of young children, will run mostly during TV shows watched by women in their 20s to 40s, said foundation president John Urban. In the next several weeks, the foundation will introduce the campaign with 10-second messages about sugary drinks or exercise, before airing the “shake and hug” commercials. All the ads will direct parents to a Web site, www.beahealthyhero.org, where the foundation will post recipes, healthy tips and links to area playgrounds. After several years, the foundation will re-evaluate the commercials and begin reaching out to families of older children, Urban said.

As part of the effort, the foundation is also distributing booklets to local pediatricians’ offices that will recommend ways that physicians can disarm families when talking about childhood obesity, like using the words “unhealthy weight” instead of “overweight.”

Gov. Paterson: Sign lead bill; save kids from brain damage

Peter C. Carpino and Bryan Hetherington

Gov. David Paterson deserves much credit for responding quickly and forcefully to the financial crisis. However, there are other critical issues that he must address using that same firm leadership.

In the next few days, Paterson must decide whether to sign into law the Childhood Lead Poisoning Primary Prevention and Safe Housing Act of 2008. The act would identify the top 30 high-risk areas in the state, require prevention plans for those communities, increase the amount of information available to the public and offer tax credits for homeowners for lead hazard reduction.

It has taken years to get this legislation passed in both houses. The research is clear that signing the bill would mean many more New York children would succeed in school and many fewer would end up in jail. Costs for health care, criminal justice and special education would decrease an estimated $25 million a year, and tax revenues would rise.

Gov. Paterson has long been an advocate for programs to reduce lead poisoning, but in the past, New York state failed to do anything to actually look for hazards in buildings until a child was already poisoned by lead. By then the damage from lead poisoning is permanent.

Maybe there would have been some excuse for failing to act if it had been necessary to inspect all 7 million housing units in New York state. But by 1998, the state Health Department had determined that a very limited number of “high-risk” neighborhoods account for a huge proportion of the children who are damaged by lead. According to 2005 data recently released by the state, slightly more than 1 percent of the ZIP codes in the state account for nearly 40 percent of the new incidences of childhood lead poisoning cases outside of New York City.

It’s not as if we don’t know how to address this problem. This legislation would require communities to work together to come up with the most suitable local methods to find the housing likely to contain lead-paint hazards – as we did in Rochester several years ago. Since 2006, the city of Rochester, in cooperation with Monroe County, has performed more than 28,000 housing inspections, and the number of children poisoned has been cut by two-thirds over the last five years. So we know that with prudent planning, we can inspect for lead-paint hazards and remove them economically and effectively. That’s probably why Mayor Robert Duffy, County Executive Maggie Brooks and District Attorney Mike Green have each urged Paterson to sign this legislation.

The numbers of children poisoned by lead paint in New York state are the highest in the nation. Other states, such as Massachusetts, have long ago taken preventive measures. Boston now reports fewer new cases of children poisoned by lead each year than the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, and even fewer cases than Utica, with a population of less than 60,000. Since 1998, more than 250,000 children in New York state have been damaged by lead and still suffer the consequences. The nearly 3,000 new cases in upstate New York identified by the state as having been poisoned by lead in 2005 reflect only a fraction of the likely number of cases. Only 45 percent to 50 percent of children in the state are tested for lead poisoning at ages 1 and 2.

Lead poisoning can affect any child regardless of race. Still, African-American and Latino children are far more likely to live in the high-risk areas. In fact, more than 90 percent of the African-American children younger than age 5 in the city of Buffalo lived in one of the 36 high-risk ZIP codes identified by the state in 2001. And, for all of upstate New York, one in three African-American children younger than 5 lived in a high-risk area.

In these difficult times, it takes strong leadership to put public resources where they will do the most good. We have an opportunity to protect our children from lead poisoning, and we trust the governor will act to do so by signing this bill.

Carpino is president, United Way of Greater Rochester; Hetherington is chief counsel, Empire Justice Center.

You can read a NY Times story about the debate over the ban here.

The bill passed with enough votes to override a threatened veto from the president and it now goes to the Senate where its prospects for a veto-proof majority are less clear.

Articles on the passage of the House bill here, here, and here.

Also, Scotland’s ban on indoor smoking is being credited with a 17% drop in heart attacks, NEJM reports.  USA Today has an article on the study here.

You can read a D&C story about a joint new conference held by Foodlink and the Rochester Rhinos here (full text after the jump).  And you can find out more information about the program on the Foodlink website here.

Democrat & Chronicle: Foodlink reaches out to Rochester kids with free meals

July 23, 2008

Kate Perry

Each week when school is out, Foodlink serves 8,000 meals to local children at 30 sites across the city – a good deed that leaves organizers with a burning question.

Where are the rest of the kids eating?

About 25,000 children in the Rochester School District are eligible for free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch, according to the district’s state school report card, meaning their families might depend on schools to feed their kids one or two meals a day.

The city of Rochester serves about 22,000 free meals per week, but Foodlink Executive Director Thomas C. Ferraro worries about the thousands of remaining kids who could be missing meals.

Tuesday he joined more than 400 kids, the Rochester Rhinos and local officials for a healthy lunch at PAETEC Park to remind the community that there’s a free meal each day for kids 19 and younger this summer. “We could serve every single kid that’s not getting a meal right now. It’s a reimbursable program,” Ferraro said of Foodlink, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Aside from just being available, Ferraro said the meals served by Foodlink have other qualities: The food is healthy and most of it is produced locally.

At PAETEC Park, kids from local programs served by Foodlink munched on black bean or chicken wraps with their choice of fresh vegetables and toppings such as cheese. Milk and fresh apricots and plums rounded out the meal, with peach smoothies for a sweet treat.

Much of the food came from three local farms.

Xavier Lopez, a 10-year-old who will enter fifth grade at School 9 this fall, came to the event with his fellow summer campers from The Community Place of Greater Rochester.

He said he likes the food and it tastes good enough that he doesn’t miss greasy potato chips or sugary snacks.

“(I like it) because it’s healthy food,” he said. “It’s not good to eat fatty food.”

Patrick Martin, the site director for The Community Place summer camp, said it takes some time for kids to love the healthy fare Foodlink serves up, but most end up like Xavier.

“The first few experiences they are going to say ‘yuck.’ They’ll say they don’t like it. They might push it away,” he said. “When they realize it’s A, healthy for you, and B, healthy foods taste good together, soon they are accepting of it.”

Nora Herbert (WEP Director @ the Healthy Home), Vonjula Thompson (WEP Intern), Dot Gulardo (Healthy Home Program Manager)

The childhood obestiy epidemic could have a lasting legacy of a growing number of adults with diabetes.   You can read a HealthDay story on the Michigan study here.

A British study in rats has revealed that eating an unhealthy diet during pregnancy raises the lifetime risk of obesity and elevated cholesterol and blood sugar levels in offspring.

URMC childhood obesity expert Stephen Cook, M.D. commented on the study, which appears in the Journal of Physiology, in a WebMD story:

“A lot of information suggests that in-utero exposures can lead to long-lasting effects in children.  Women who smoke during pregnancy have children who are heavier, so maternal patterns can affect a child’s weight. Whether the cause is altered metabolism or something else, it is a very real concern.”

You can read the entire WebMD story here.