Support Nutrition and Physical Activity in Schools

The USDA recently released proposed guidelines to strengthen nutrition and physical activity in schools. As part of the potential improvements, schools will limit unhealthy food and beverage marketing in schools, promote more physical activity and nutrition education, and ensure all foods served to students are nutritious and healthy. This is a great step forward in the ongoing effort to improve student wellness!?While many schools have adopted policies over the past few years to support healthy eating and physical activity, implementation has not been uniformly strong. USDA’s proposed updates will strengthen implementation, help parents be better informed about the policies, and provide schools with more tools and resources. And, local school districts will still have the flexibility they need to develop and implement policies that are tailored to their specific interests. Please take a few minutes today to let USDA know that you support improvements to nutrition and physical activity in schools!

Tell Michelle Obama: Help Pass the Saving America?s Pollinators Act

Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama finished planting her sixth-annual White House Kitchen Garden. This year, along with the vegetable garden, she planted a pollinator garden to attract and support 70,000 bees already gracing the presidential lawn, as well as monarch butterflies and other pollinators. Knowing how important pollinators are to our food and farming system, what we really need is a ban on the toxic pesticides and herbicides that are responsible for killing off huge populations of honeybees. Last year, beekeepers reported record-breaking losses of 40-90 percent, with some beekeepers losing 100 percent of their hives. Mounting scientific evidence points to the world?s most popular class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, made by giant chemical companies Bayer and Syngenta, as the main culprit in global bee die-off, or Colony Collapse Disorder (CDC). The European Union has placed a two-year moratorium on neonics, meanwhile America’s EPA continues to ignore a growing body of science and has delayed action until 2018. The bees can?t wait that long. And neither can we. Please ask First Lady Michelle Obama to set an example for the nation by urging the Obama Administration and Congress to support H.R. 2692, the Saving America?s Pollinators Act.