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Commission to Build a Healthier America June Meeting Agenda
This is the agenda for the June 19, 2013 RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America public meeting.
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Testimony of Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Before the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives
Innovations in Addressing Childhood Obesity
At a House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Hearing on childhood obesity today, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., testified about promising and effective community- and school-based approaches to removing barriers to healthy eating and physical activity.
“It’s clear the cost of inaction is unacceptable,” Lavizzo-Mourey said, noting that nearly one-third of our nation’s children are obese or overweight.
"It’s critical that a diverse group of partners work together to effect change at the community level,” she testified. “But solving the epidemic of childhood obesity also requires leadership and coordination at the federal level that cuts across departments and agencies. Transportation policies, housing policies, education policies and agriculture policies—not just health policies—all have an impact on whether children and families have access to healthy, nutritious foods and safe streets and neighborhoods.”