Only one teacher in my high school asked how I was doing and actually meant it. I'm not sure if any others asked, actually. She was my art teacher - a tiny woman with short, boyish hair and huge round owl glasses. She'd peer up at me, put her hand on my arm and ask, "How are you?"

"Fine," I'd blurt, avoiding eye contact and trying to pretend I was considering my drawing. In my junior year, I had been cranking out collages, unable to stop the tumble of ideas - mostly feminist stuff, anti-Barbie, anti-1950s housewife. I had been excited then, productive, angry, but excited to be able to express myself. And I was receiving recognition from the art teachers and my peers. I was good at this, which was surprising and felt great.

As a senior, when I made art, I was really slow and stretched each project out as long as I could. When I faced a blank page, I felt paralyzed. How could I take something from inside myself and put it out there for my peers to judge? I had a hard enough time choosing my clothes in the morning, which was how I was representing and packaging my identity to the world. (Yes, this was actually how I thought. It sucked).

I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety that fall. I felt like suddenly everyone was judging my every move, and simultaneously no one seemed to notice that I was trying to disappear into myself. Or if they noticed, no one asked me - except Mrs. Monroe. She was earnestly concerned with my feelings, so I avoided her like the plague. I was working so hard to keep my feelings intact, not to let myself cry, when this sweet little woman would show her concern for me with those owl eyes, I felt like a mouse. Cornered. "No, I'm fine" i.e. please leave me alone. Please don't give me the opportunity to cry.

Now I wish I could thank her for caring about me and explain that I was depressed. I didn't mean to be rude by avoiding her.  I wanted to please her by continuing to produce great work, but I just couldn't.

Maybe she should have taken me some place private to talk, some place where I could relax and tell her. Maybe she did, I don't remember. But I had my parents looking out for me, too, and I made it through.

I try to remember now as an adult to ask people how they are doing and mean it with all sincerity, because maybe I'm the only one.

For more information on teen depression, read this document What's Up: Information for Adults who Care about Teens from the Washington State Department of Health.

The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) just released a report - Federal Nutrition Programs: Vital for the (Economic) Health of Rural America - which stresses the importance of these programs in stimulating local rural economies and helping foster strong schools and communities to attract and retain families. 

The report backs up what we’ve observed at SOWA through our Feed Your Brain project providing rural communities of Washington state with resources to run summer academic/enrichment programming and offer free, nutritious meals to children and youth as an open site through the Summer Feeding Service Program.  Poverty and hunger are MORE prevalent in rural America and the recession has only “exacerbated rural jobs deficits and economic hardship; educational attainment and wage levels are generally lower in rural America; and attracting and retaining young families – while also serving an increasingly aging population – remains challenging for rural America,” as the report states.

Federal nutrition programs are a critical source of economic stimulation and support to families.  The summer and afterschool snack programs provide nutrition during non-school hours for children and youth who rely on free/reduced price school meals.  The nutrition programs also help bring kids to afterschool and summer programs and keep them learning, engaged, safe and healthy.  

School’s Out Washington will continue to work with our partners at Children’s Alliance, OSPI, WithinReach and other anti-hunger and nutrition groups to increase participation in the summer meals program (only 10% of eligible children accessed summer meals in 2010), and most recently, to raise awareness of the At-Risk Afterschool Meal Program.   With changes to the Child Nutrition bill in 2010, afterschool programs may now be reimbursed at higher rates for one snack and one meal through the At-Risk Afterschool Meal Program. FRAC has put together an Afterschool Meals Guide with more information. Stay tuned for more details over the coming months on how to apply and other information you need to know to enroll in this federal nutrition program.

Please contact Danielle with any questions about our work to expand use of the summer and afterschool meal programs in Washington State.
 

By Jennifer Trott, Associate Director – Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition

On April 27, 2011, representatives from 25 organizations throughout WA and King County, including School’s Out Washington, joined together to launch a new community-wide effort urging residents, businesses and other organizations to take a break from soda and sugary drinks for one day a week. Soda Free Sundays, supported by the Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition, aims to create awareness about sugary drinks and look for opportunities to increase access to healthier drink alternatives in homes, work, faith-based community and recreational facilities.

Over the course of the six week campaign, April 27—June 7, 2011, anyone can visit www.sodafreesundays.org to sign on and take the pledge.

Soda and other sugary drinks – including non-diet sodas, shorts drinks, energy drinks, sweetened fruit drinks and vitamin drinks – are one of the major contributors to obesity today, particularly among kids. It is easier to consume massive quantities of sugar-loaded beverages than food because they don’t make us feel full, and what’s more – they contain little or no nutritional value.

Consider the following:

In some King County communities, almost half of youth 14–18 reported drinking a soda on the previous day, with almost 20% reporting drinking 2 or more sodas. Two 20 oz servings of soda is
the recommended amount of sugar a teenager should consumer over the course of 4 days.

• Every additional daily serving of soda increases a child’s risk of obesity by 60 percent.
• Sugar-loaded beverages have replaced milk in the diets of many teens, putting them at risk for osteoporosis.
• Consumption of sugar-loaded beverages by children (1 to 5 years old) is associated with an 80-100% increased risk of cavities.

Unfortunately, cutting back on overconsumption of these drinks is not easy. Every day we are bombarded by highly effective advertisements and are faced with the lure of cheap and easily accessible sugary beverages. Soda Free Sundays recognizes that, together as a community, we can take a first step in building a healthier generation. The goal of the campaign is to make small changes that we can build on as individuals and a community, and to build on those changes to create a big impact in our lives and our community.

Here’s what you can do to join us in supporting the Soda Free Sundays Effort:
• Take the pledge as a family, school or other organization at www.sodafreesundays.org
• Download the Action Plan for Organizations and Family Action Plan to get started.
• Connect with us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SodaFreeSundays or Twitter (@SodaFreeSundays)  for tips and ideas to keep your pledge efforts going, and to tell us your own Soda Free Sundays story.
• Spread the word and challenge others to take the pledge -- on our pledge form, you will find a space for individuals to note what organization that they are pledging with - be sure to tell your members. If you get 20 or more individuals to pledge we will feature you on our website as a "Soda Free Sundays sponsor" and highlight you at our final celebration event at Seattle Center on June 7 at 11am at Seattle Center!

Questions? Want to get involved? Contact us at jen@sodafreesundays.org

Soda Free Sundays partners: The Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition (www.copcwa.org) is supporting Soda Free Sundays along with several of its partners in King County, including: American Heart Association, Seattle King County Public Health, Comprehensive Health Education Foundation, Center for Multicultural Health, Seattle Parks and Recreation, King County Academy of Family Physicians, University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition, American Academy of Pediatrics - WA Chapter, Group Health, King County Medical Society, Nutrition First, Feet First, Camp Fire USA Central Puget Sound, School's Out Washington, Hope Heart Institute, WA Dental Services Foundation, Washington Chapter American College of Physicians, Boys and Girls Club of King County, King County Nurses Association, MultiCare Center for Healthy Living, MultiCare, WA Dairy Council, Snohomish Health District.

By Jennifer Tucci, MPH, RD, Research Coordinator with the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition

Screen-Free Week is April 18-24, 2011!
Kids, families, schools, and communities pledge to turn off screens and turn on life.

On a typical day, 8- to 18-year-olds in this country spend more than 7½ hours with screen-based media such as television, video games, computers and hand-held devices.  That’s 53 hours a week!   (This total does not even include homework time on the computer.)   School-age children spend more time with screens than any other activity besides sleeping!

You may be surprised at this number but think about it…screens are everywhere!  And when the TV is on “in the background,” those hours can add up quickly.  The other thing that adds up is the number of advertisements children are exposed to while using all that screen-based media…40,000 ads a year on TV alone!

Too much time spent with screens is associated with childhood obesity, decreased academic performance, sleep disturbances, and attention span and other behavioral issues.  Although screens can sometimes be a good thing—you are all using a screen right now ?—we, as proponents of healthy youth development, can all do our part to help decrease the “unhealthy” use of screens.
 
This week is officially Screen-Free Week. Previously known as TV Turnoff Week, Screen-Free Week is a national celebration where children, families and communities spend seven days turning off entertainment screen media and turning on life.  The goal of Screen-Free Week is to not just turn off screens for seven days, but to think about incorporating more screen-free activities year round.  Think about it…If someone asked you about your three favorite activities, would watching TV or surfing the Internet make the list?  What would the response be if you asked kids the same question?

To get kids thinking about their use of screens, and to encourage them to reduce screen time, increase physical activity, and become “media savvy” and responsible users of screen-based media, the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition has developed a media literacy curriculum for 3rd-6th graders called Powerful Choices: Healthy Living in a Media World.  Designed especially for out-of-school program settings, this FREE curriculum includes all the necessary materials: detailed lesson guides, activity sheets, handouts and even parent newsletters.  We can even arrange a free in-service training for you and your staff to help you get the ball rolling.  All we ask in return is your feedback after you implement the curriculum.

To download the Powerful Choices: Healthy Living in a Media World curriculum, as well as other resources for out-of-school providers on reducing screen time, go to www.wapartnersinaction.org/powerful_choices/.  You can also contact me at jennjt@uw.edu with any questions, comments or suggestions.

So…do you think you could turn off the TV or take a Facebook break for an entire week?  I challenge you all to join me in participating in Screen-Free Week from April 18th-24th and to comment on your experience below.

References:
Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds (A Kaiser Family Foundation Study)
American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement: Children, Adolescents, and Television

In 2008, the Children’s Alliance with input from a diverse group of partners, organizations and community members across Washington State, developed a plan to end childhood hunger by 2018.  One of the key strategies in this plan is to increase access and participation in the Summer Food Service Program, a federally-subsidized meal program that serves children and youth ages 0-18 during the summer months. 

Currently, 367,000 families in Washington face the threat of hunger every day. Of the 452,076 school-age children and youth who get free or reduced price meals during the school year, only 15% access free meals during the summer through the Summer Food Service Program. 

School’s Out Washington is working collaboratively with OSPI, WithinReach, Children’s Alliance, Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline to develop strategies that will result in more kids being fed during the summer months.  As part of this work, the WA Summer Meals Statewide Partnership developed a resource toolkit available on ParentHelp123.org to help partners identify needs, gaps and ways to work together for a successful summer program. 

The toolkit includes more information on the Summer Food Service Program, suggestions on how organizations can help feed hungry kids in the summer, a Washington Summer Meals Guide and basic Summer Meals 101.  You will also find the contact information for staff at OSPI who administer the Summer Food Service Program and other information about being a Summer Meals sponsor and potential funding opportunities to help support summer programs.

There are a few target counties across the state with decreasing numbers of sponsors and increasing numbers of kids who are eligible and in need of free meals so they don't go hungry during the summer months.  Those counties include: King, Yakima, Spokane, Benton-Franklin, Chelan, Douglas, Grays Harbor and Pierce.  If you live in one of these counties and are interested in starting up a site or finding other organizations in your area who have sponsored the program in the past, be sure to check out the ParentHelp123.org website where you'll find a list of past sponsors by county.

Providing young people with access to nutritious foods is a key indicator of a quality afterschool and summer program.  The summer food program helps make summer meals affordable for families and summer program providers and is a great resource that has not been used to its full potential to serve all eligible children and youth in our state.  We can make a difference this summer and make sure more kids are fed and engaged in enriching activities during the summer months.

If you have any questions about the WA Summer Meals Partnership, contact Sue Waldin at suew@withinreachwa.org or (206) 830-7646 or contact Danielle Baer at dbaer@schoolsoutwashington.org, (206) 336-6924.