Yo Chunk, what's up with your food?

Yes, this is a reference to Goonies and the young candy bar-loving boy whose extra weight makes his character more endearing. I work in schools and am beginning a lifelong career of working with young students. Unfortunately, I've seen far too many kids who look like Chunk and possibly weigh more than I do (which is no easy feat these days).

Here's what I know about childhood obesity:

• Childhood obesity rates are on the rise. Kids are chunky!
• Malnutrition is completely different from undernutrition.
• Bad foods are easily accessible and cheap, AND foods that many people think are healthy are really contributing to the obesity epidemic in the U.S.
• Some efforts are being made towards education, prevention, and awareness.
• This is not going to be an easy change for U.S. schools, students, and families.

Here's what we WANT to know about childhood obesity and healthy diets in the schools:

• Investigate and report the current status of school diet in Chicago Public Schools (CPS)
• Federal policies and positions regarding school nutrition and health
• Various organizations that are helping to make schools healthy (both in CPS and nationwide)
• How our current budget crisis is contributing to the lack of student health
• The deal with junk food contracts in schools

Join us in our Nutrition Inquisition into the dietary habits of America's schools!