From Lubbock Online |

What happened at the South Plains Food Bank Farm during the recent rains was tragic. But as a community we can — and need to — fix this.

In a single week, rains flooded most of the five-acre farm at 76th Street and Avenue B and took away the fruit of more than two months of work.

TFPR steering committee member Eileen Garcia, CEO of Texans Care for Children, wrote an eye-opening op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman today highlighting the unfortunate connections between hunger and obesity in Texas children.

Programs are underway to tackle childhood obesity, but much more needs to be done, experts say.

By Mary Ann Roser

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

A national report last week that says Texas adults are the 13th fattest in the nation had worse news for Texas children: They were the seventh most obese in the nation.

"My heart is saddened," said Dr. Kimberly Avila Edwards, medical director of the Healthy Living Happy Living program at Dell Children's Medical Center. "A few years ago, there was hope obesity rates were leveling off."

FREE Cooking Class Series

The Happy Kitchen presents:

Learn to prepare delicious, healthy and inexpensive meals. Be informed of good nutrition for you and your family. Learn how to get the most food for your money.

Classes meet once a week for 1.5 hours for a period of 6 weeks. After each class, you will receive a free bag of groceries to prepare the recipe taught in class at home.

***Registration priority for Greater Mt. Zion parishioners***
***Childcare available***
***Must register for entire class series***

FREE Cooking Class Series

The Happy Kitchen presents:

Learn to prepare delicious, healthy and inexpensive meals. Be informed of good nutrition for you and your family. Learn how to get the most food for your money.

Classes meet once a week for 1.5 hours for a period of 6 weeks. After each class, you will receive a free bag of groceries to prepare the recipe taught in class at home.

***Registration priority for Greater Mt. Zion parishioners***
***Childcare available***
***Must register for entire class series***

The Texas Food Policy Roundtable issued a press release on June 29, 2010, in conjunction with a newly released national report from the Food Research & Action Center. The report shows that Texas has work to do to ensure low-income children have access to nutritious food during the summer. The full release is found below.

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The Center for American Progress has published a report highlighting how the new health care reform will aid in reducing and preventing obesity. The findings of the report reiterate how important it is that each American have access to healthy, fresh, affordable food.

From the Center's website:

USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen A. Merrigan issued a statement in August of last year assuring regional food systems' administrators that she will work to connect them to government grants that best suit their needs. Specific Rural Development grants are still available, and two of them are highlighted here: 1) the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, and 2) the Value-Added Producer Grant Program.

Yesterday, the Texas Tribune published an article about the Summer Food Service Program called "The Big Hungry," authored by Alexa Garcia-Ditta.

For many of us, acronyms like SHAC, TPSNP, TASN and CNPIMS are dizzying and foreign. For Kathy Golson, however, they are simply common workplace lingo. Kathy is the Deputy Assistant Commissioner for the Food and Nutrition Division of the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA).