Groups ask First Lady to consider an "outdoor component" in her childhood obesity fight.
Excerpt from the letter below:
Dear Mrs. Obama:
On behalf of our tens of millions of members and supporters, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for your commitment to combating childhood obesity. We applaud your childhood obesity initiative for promoting improvements in school lunches, access to healthy foods, physical activity and nutrition education. While proper nutrition is necessary to solve the childhood obesity crisis, it is also important to engage youth and their families in healthy, lifelong activities. We urge you to promote and support a deep connection between children and the great outdoors by considering the addition of an “outdoors in nature” component, either as an element of your physical activity pillar or as a stand alone 5th pillar, to your childhood obesity initiative. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with your office to further discuss the initiative and the role that an “outdoors in nature” component might play in tackling childhood obesity.
Letter Continued.....
Sincerely,
Cheryl Charles, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Children & Nature Network (C&NN)
Barbara Tulipane
CEO
National Recreation and Park Association
Larry Schweiger
President and CEO
National Wildlife Federation
Christine Fanning
Executive Director
The Outdoor Foundation
Sally Jewell
President and CEO
REI
Michael Brune
Executive Director
Sierra Club
Neil J. Nicoll
President and CEO
YMCA of the USA