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Kids in the Kitchen celebrates successful first year
Press Release
Junior Leagues' Kids in the Kitchen Initiative Celebrates A Successful First Year!
In February of 2006, Junior Leagues from across four countries launched an international initiative called Junior Leagues' Kids in the Kitchen, designed to help communities address the urgent issues surrounding childhood obesity and poor nutrition. The program's activities, which culminated during Volunteer Week on April 23-29, 2006, met with great success and the initiative is continuing in 2007.
In March, the Association of Junior Leagues International launched a new website, http://kidsinthekitchen.ajli.org, which provides materials to support the initiative including recipes and tips on nutrition. During Volunteer Week, April 23-29, individual Leagues from across the Association hosted educational events in their local communities. During Volunteer Week, individual Leagues from across the Association hosted educational events in their local communities. Events ranged from partnering with local chefs who gave cooking demonstrations in schools and community centers to hands-on grocery store tours that showed kids and parents nutritious and affordable ways to select recipe ingredients and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Leagues conducted the programs in partnership with local community organizations in order to raise awareness and provide solutions for the growing health problems associated with childhood obesity.
Kids in the Kitchen's initial success speaks for itself: more than 200 Junior Leagues participated in the program and provided educational initiatives for children and families in their communities. To date, media coverage has reached over 80 million people with messages about the issues surrounding childhood obesity and the Junior League's initiative to address these.
This League-wide initiative not only addresses a growing problem facing today's children but also honors the Junior League's long heritage of impact on family nutrition over the past 105 years. Since the early 1970s the number of overweight children in our countries has increased dramatically, substantially increasing children's risks for health problems such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
For the upcoming year, program activities will focus around National Nutrition Month (March) in the U.S. and Canada. The Leagues look forward to building upon Kids in the Kitchen's impressive first year and continuing to address the important issues related to childhood obesity and poor nutrition.
To visit the website, go to http://kidsinthekitchen.ajli.org.
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