American School Food Service Association Active in First National Healthy Schools Summit; ASFSA to Take Action to Improve Children's Health in Schools.

News Editors & Education Writers

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 2002

To battle what many view as a national health crisis among children, representatives of the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA) are meeting this week with former U.S. Surgeon General, David Satcher, MD, PhD, and more than 500 other education and health leaders from around the country at the "Healthy Schools Summit."

The goal of the Summit, held in Washington, D.C., is to identify ways of building healthier school environments that support better nutrition and physical activity among children and teens. Dr. Satcher is present as Summit chairman, and Mrs. Laura Bush is the honorary chair.

"We know that inadequate physical activity and poor food choices are major contributors to the growing problem of obesity and other chronic health conditions that our children carry with them through adulthood," said Gaye Lynn MacDonald, president of ASFSA, and a speaker at the Summit. "The good news is we're learning that when our students are better fed and are more active, they also perform better in school, so actions we take now will benefit our children across the board."

ASFSA President Gaye Lynn MacDonald served on the Advisory Board for the conference and ASFSA staff worked on the planning and steering committees. The committees developed the Summit's guiding document, the "Commitment to Change," topics and agenda for the Summit, and the state team structure and support tools.

The "Healthy Schools Summit: Taking Action for Children's Nutrition and Fitness" is a groundbreaking collaboration of more than 30 national education and health groups that will use their state and local networks to help facilitate positive change at the grass roots level. Participants will examine solutions for creating healthier school environments with a primary focus on the establishment of state teams organized to develop local actions following the Summit. Each state team - comprised of state and local education and health leaders, school administrators and educators, students, parents and community and business leaders - will develop and implement its own action plan, identifying and pursuing strategic goals deemed most important for that state.

"The Summit is just the beginning of this initiative," said Gaye Lynn MacDonald. "Our goal is that ASFSA's strong state and local networks will become active and influential in the state teams that are being launched at this meeting." State affiliates of ASFSA are already involved in this process.

"We must be willing to take action now to reverse the trends we see today that are leading to increases in preventable conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis," said former U.S. Surgeon General and chairman of the Summit, David Satcher, MD, PhD. "It's critical that state and local leaders get involved to improve the health of our school-aged children."

To learn more about ways to support child nutrition and physical activity, visit the Healthy Schools Summit web site, www.actionforhealthykids.org.

ASFSA (http://www.asfsa.org) is a national, non-profit professional organization representing more than 55,000 members who provide high-quality, low-cost meals to students across the country. The association and its members are dedicated to feeding children safe and nutritious meals. Founded in 1946, ASFSA is the only association devoted exclusively to protecting and enhancing children's health and well being through school meals and sound nutrition education.