By Liz Kresse
November 12, 2007

Mayors from across the nation participated in the Leadership for Healthy Communities Childhood Obesity Prevention Summit held in Washington (DC), on October 18-19. The summit, which was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, brought together—for the first time ever—local, state, and federal policymakers to discuss innovative policy strategies that support healthy eating and active living and prevent childhood obesity. Several mayors were among panelists addressing an audience of about 150 and provided valuable insight into the role that mayors can play in addressing childhood obesity through policy initiatives.

Speaking on panel highlighting local and state approaches to improving community health, Columbia (Mo) Mayor Darwin Hindman stressed the importance of adopting policies that “remove and reduce barriers to fitness.” Among the policies that Columbia has adopted under his leadership are: street standards that require sidewalks and pedways to be built on all new streets; intersection standards that require accommodation of bicyclists and pedestrians; and a policy that ensures that there is a park within one mile of each residence. Hindman, who said that “I ride my bike everywhere every day,” also mentioned several successful Columbia programs that support fitness, such as the annual Mayor’s Challenge: Bike, Walk and Wheel Week, a week-long series of events that encourage citizens to build physical activity into their routine and the annual Cycle-Recycle, which involves repairing and giving away donated bikes to children in low-income areas. On the nutrition side, Hindman noted that the city has donated valuable land near a grade school to be used for a farmer’s market and mentioned the Columbia/Boone County Health Department’s Lunch in the Park program, which provides free nutritional lunches to children during the summer months. Hindman ended by saying that “every city needs to do what it can” to keep its citizens fit.

Speaking on a panel that looked at the connection between obesity, energy, the environment, and climate change, Arlington (TX) Mayor Robert Cluck, who is also a practicing physician, spoke about his first-hand experience with an epidemic of childhood asthma in his community. Asthma is affected by poor air quality, a major problem in this heavily auto-dependent city. Poor air quality not only contributes to lung cancer and respiratory illnesses such as asthma, noted Cluck, but also keeps children indoors on bad ozone days when citizens are warned to stay inside and not exercise. Cluck spoke about his efforts to address both poor air quality and childhood obesity. He stated that he is “determined that we will get a public transportation system, if it’s the last thing that I do.” He also noted that the city has built a twenty-mile jogging, walking and biking trail that will be expanded to 35 miles and is working to add bike paths to busy city streets. Finally, as a result of the city’s relationship with the Dallas Cowboys and its role as a future host of the Superbowl, Dallas Cowboy football players routinely address school children on the benefits of fitness and, following the Superbowl in 2011, will leave behind a state-of-the art youth fitness and education center that will benefit local children for years to come. The center will be worth two million dollars, one million of which will come from the city.

Somerville (MA) Mayor Joseph Curtatone provided an overview of the nationally acclaimed Shape Up Somerville program, a three-year environmental change intervention whose goal is to prevent obesity in a culturally and ethnically diverse community where, as Curtatone noted, “a lot of our kids not only don’t have access to healthy foods, some weren’t even having three meals a day.” The program involved numerous new policies and programs such as the offering of breakfast and fresher, healthier foods in the public schools and opportunities for physical activity in after'school programs, implementation of a Safe Routes to School program, and the Shape Up- approved program that identifies restaurants offering healthier fare. The key result of the program was a one pound less per year weight gain in the study group of school children as compared to control groups. Although Shape Up Somerville was planned and implemented by a number of community partners led by a local university, Curtatone stated that his role in the intervention has been to “try to strike some fire into some policy changes” through his personal participation and advocacy.

For more information on the Conference of Mayors “Healthy Cities Campaign,” go to the website www.usmayors.org/chhs.