Agriculture Commissioner Helping Battle Against Child Obesity
EL PASO, TX. – Childhood obesity is a serious problem across the United States and Texas is no different.
The Lonestar state ranks sixth in the nation in overweight kids and now the state’s Agriculture Commissioner is trying to change that. Established back in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, National School Lunch Week was designedto help raise awareness for the important role school nutrition programs play in the lives of America’s children.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples met with students and faculty of Hart Elementary Tuesday in South El Paso. He toured the campus, got to eat lunch withsome students and talked about better student nutrition.
Staples reminded the students about using the 3 ‘E’s for better health; those three E’s are education, exercise and eating right. Staples said those need to be practices all the time.
“It’s so important that we encourage everyone to eat right not only at school, but at home during the summer time. The reality is, when kids go home after school or during the summer, they are not receiving healthy nutritious food that they need to have,” Staples added.
Every day the national school lunch program provides low- cost or free lunches to more than 3-million children in Texas. At Hart Elementary 96% of the students get those free or reduced meals.
