Ah-Ha Moment: We can’t be Intimidated

“At first, it was daunting to me,” recalls Margo Wootan, describing the challenge of improving nutrition and physical activity for kids in childcare.   Wootan, director of Nutrition Policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said it was a matter of fragmentation.

“You can’t pass one law and fix the food and the physical activity environment in every childcare center,” she said.  “There are so many different childcare settings.”

On the surface, the challenge seems very different than improving health in schools.  Compared with childcare, schools enroll most kids in the U.S. and a federal change in policy can trickle down to affect all of them.  It’s an area where Wootan has worked for more than a decade, and it’s on the cusp of eliminating soda and junk food, she said.

But while there has been much great work done in schools, “the obesity problem starts so young,” Wootan said.  “We also need to focus on the little guys – the kids before they get to school.”

As she listened to the discussions today, she had a realization: schools are a fragmented place too.  “Every district, every state, has a very different way of doing things,” she said.  And that, she says, is promising for the future of healthier childcare.

“If we’ve made such significant progress in schools, despite the fragmentation,” Wootan explained, “we can’t be intimidated to take on nutrition and physical activity in childcare.”

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