First Lady Michelle Obama recently brought the Let’s Move! campaign against childhood obesity to Philadelphia, visiting students at Fairhill Elementary School along with treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack. Invited guests included Vanessa Briggs, executive director of PHMC affiliate Health Promotion Council. Briggs, and other key partners working on childhood obesity initiatives in Philadelphia, had the opportunity to meet with Vilsack to discuss the Child Nutrition Act and the pillar of the program: access to healthy, affordable food in all neighborhoods.

The First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign aims to fight the epidemic of childhood obesity by building on proven strategies and utilizing public and private sector resources. Let’s Move! hopes to achieve this national goal by providing schools, families and communities with the tools to help children become more active, eat better and get healthy. As part of the campaign, First Lady Obama seeks to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act, which aims to reduce hunger, promote access and improve the health and nutrition of children across America.

“Ensuring that schools offer health food options, something Mrs. Obama often references, is one of PUFFA's [Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance] main policy and organizational change strategies,” says Briggs.

For more information about PUFFA or HPC’s other work in nutrition and physical fitness, visit www.hpcpa.org. Visit www.LetsMove.gov to learn more about the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign, or www.usda.gov for information about the USDA’s efforts to improve child nutrition.