Healthy Kids Succeed in the Classroom
Action for Healthy Kids® Releases Special Report, The Learning Connection: What You Need to Know to Ensure Your Kids Are Healthy and Ready to Learn
CHICAGO - (May 13, 2013) - In celebration of its inaugural, annual observance, Every Kid Healthy Week, April 22 –April 26, Action for Healthy Kids® released its special report, The Learning Connection: What You Need to Know to Ensure Your Kids Are Healthy and Ready to Learn. It’s an easy-to-read roadmap for parents, educators, school administrators and school volunteers to create healthier school environments so the kids in their lives are better positioned to learn.
The 14-page, consumer-oriented report - made possible by a grant from Northwestern Mutual Foundation - demonstrates that physical activity supports academic achievement, well-nourished kids learn better and that healthier practices in schools can increase school revenue. And, it shows that schools that offer students healthier food and more time to be active are seeing increasing fitness levels, better student behavior and even higher test scores. Simply put, kids who don’t eat nutritiously and enjoy regular physical activity are at an academic disadvantage.
Among the key findings highlighted in The Learning Connection:
- Moderate (physical) activity increases kids’ neuroelectric (or brain) activity.
- On average, students who eat school breakfast have been shown to attend 1.5 more days of school per year and score 17.5 percent higher on standardized math tests.
- One study of schools selling healthier foods and beverages found that 71 percent experienced revenue increases while 24 percent had no change at all.
“We know that healthy children are better learners. Unfortunately, one-third of our kids are overweight or obese and that jeopardizes their health and their ability to learn,” says Rob Bisceglie, CEO, Action for Healthy Kids. “Fortunately, parents, educators and others can work together to create healthier changes in schools. The Learning Connection explores the challenges schools face, but more importantly, outlines best practices and showcases success stories so that people in any school community can make healthful changes a reality.”
The Learning Connection: What You Need to Know to Ensure Your Kids Are Healthy and Ready to Learn (http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/storage/documents/pdfs/afhk_thelearningconnection_digitaledition.pdf) describes model school programs and has information about free resources and opportunities for school funding. The report is a follow up to Action for Healthy Kids’ 2004 landmark report, The Learning Connection: The Value of Improving Nutrition and Physical Activity in Our Schools.
About Action for Healthy Kids®
Action for Healthy Kids® fights childhood obesity, undernourishment and physical inactivity by helping schools become healthier places so kids can live healthier lives. We partner with a legion of dedicated volunteers - teachers, students, moms, dads, school wellness experts and more - from within the ranks of our 50,000+ constituency to create healthful school changes. After all, everyone has a part to play in ending the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic. Our programs, tools and resources make it possible so that many people can.
Our grassroots efforts are supported by a collaboration of more than 70 organizations, corporations and government agencies. Working together, we’re giving kids the keys to health and academic success by meeting them where they are - in the classroom, in the cafeteria and on the playground - with fun physical activity and nutrition lessons and changes that make it possible for them to eat nutritiously and play every day. More information is available at www.ActionforHealthyKids.org, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Action-for-Healthy-Kids/267076500068?ref=mf, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Act4HlthyKids and on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/act4healthykids/
About Northwestern Mutual Foundation
Northwestern Mutual has a long history of giving back to local communities through the financial support of our foundation and the volunteer commitment of our employees and field force. The mission of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation is to build strong, vibrant communities that serve as a legacy to future generations.
From our home base in Milwaukee, WI, and all across America, for our business to succeed, the communities in which we operate need to be strong and provide a high quality of life for everyone.
Whether it’s via our national childhood cancer program, our support of capacity building efforts in targeted Milwaukee neighborhoods, or our commitment to increasing the academic success for students in Milwaukee, we focus on doing what we can to present future generations with a true foundation for life.
For information, please contact:
Lorna Grisby, communications manager
Action for Healthy Kids
lorna@actionforhealthykids.org
(312) 878 -7672