Well Nourished, Brighter Futures Initiative: Ensuring Healthier Children through CA Statewide Collaboration
Many children in California and throughout the United States do not have access to nutritious foods and nutrition education, leaving them without the support they need to achieve optimal health. Environmental conditions such as where people live, learn, work, play and gather affect overall health and quality of life. While these factors are complex, supporting children’s health through nutrition can have a lifelong impact on their success in school and life.
Improving nutrition and health outcomes will require multisector support at all levels to ensure people are able to access healthy foods and nutrition education, which play an important role in supporting healthier children, families and communities. We believe that comprehensive, creative, and collaborative action is needed to ensure nutrition equity for children.
Through the Let’s Eat Healthy movement, Dairy Council of California introduced the Well-Nourished, Brighter Futures Initiative, which aims to improve nutrition education, facilitate and provide access to nutritious foods, and advocate for every child’s nutritional needs.
The initiative brought together experts in health representing community-based, academia, government and advocacy organizations in California, who met in January 2021 to identify opportunities and needs in the community. Together, participants developed a framework and future action items to ensure all children in California are well-nourished and supported for a brighter future.
We envision a future of nutrition equity, where each and every child has access to the healthy foods and supports necessary to reach their full potential for growth, health, and learning.
Together, we pursue nutrition and child health equity through collaborative, multisector action and advocacy by passionate champions and diverse stakeholders.
The Well-Nourished, Brighter Futures Initiative Launch Stakeholder Convening Report captures participants’ input during the convening. It is meant to help inspire action within participants’ and others’ respective areas of work in order to improve nutrition and child health equity.
Highlights of the report include:
Brought to you by Dairy Council of California, The Children’s Partnership, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, First 5 Sacramento, Los Angeles County Office of Education, and No Kid Hungry, we would like to thank the participants who helped shape the Well-Nourished, Brighter Futures strategic framework. The diverse group of stakeholders demonstrates that individuals and organizations can share learning, resources, and capacity to create action that supports healthier, nourished children and families.
With the framework developed, our work has only just begun. Make a difference in your community today by joining the Let’s Eat Healthy movement at HealthyEating.org/Join.
Join Ashley Rosales, RDN, in her overview of the issues that are at the core of this initiative.
Watch here
Learn more about healthy drink recommendations for young children
