Hey there, it's Jenny again.  On November 17th, I had the opportunity to participate in a meeting to update the Blueprint for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity.  This document (Blueprint) contains all the activities or objectives that need to be done in San Mateo County in order to prevent childhood obesity and other causes related to not eating healthy and not being physically active.  To be honest with all of you, it was a great experience.  I learned that preventing obesity in children is much more than just getting information out to the public.  The Get Healthy San Mateo County Task Force has been working on the objectives in this Blueprint since 2005, and has seen many challenges in trying to ensure that children in our county are healthy.  For example, changing school lunches to be healthier lunches isn't something that the county can just snap their fingers and do.  It takes time and a lot of commitment and support from many community partners. 

At the meeting, participants separated into four groups and talked about different topics.  The group topics were 1) increase opportunities for physical activity, 2) improve nutrition & physical activity in the school environment, 3) promote healthy foods/decrease availability of unhealthy foods, and 4) increase access to fruits & vegetables.  Each group discussed activities in the Blueprint that still needs to be completed, and any ideas that should be added that isn't included in the Blueprint.  One of the ideas that I brought up was poverty tax.  As many people notice, when we go buy groceries at a corner market, especially in a low-income neighborhood, they are more expensive than at a regular grocery store.  That extra cost is due to poverty tax - businesses charge more because they know people in poor neighborhoods don't have any other options.  So the idea we all got to solve this was to have multiple corner stores buy fresh fruit and vegetables together so that they can purchase them at a lower price and sell them at a lower price. 

At the end, two new ideas were voted to be presented to the entire group in the room.  We were all given a remote control look-alike device to rank each activity (what was already on the Blueprint and the new ideas) — from least important to the most important (not that they all weren't important).

After everyone voted we went back to our groups and discussed if what was voted the highest was easy to do or if it would be difficult to accomplish in the next five years. We also discussed why we think that the one voted on as least important was voted to be the least.  Did we agree or disagree with the vote?  After the discussion, the meeting was concluded.  There were three meetings held in San Mateo County - one in North County, Mid County, and the Coastside. This experience was a great one, and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it. 

Information for the Blueprint update meetings is still being gathered, and if you have any ideas or want to get involved you can contact Naida Pare at npare@co.sanmateo.ca.us.