All Blog Posts

01/30/15

Our kids spend most of their waking life at school, so the food they encounter there can have a real impact on their health. If you're feeling concerned about some aspect of your child's school food environment - take action! Here are some general tips for effective school food advocacy: Keep your cool. Food is an emotional issue for most people, and questioning how someone feeds the children in their care can touch on all kinds of sensitivities. So no matter how annoyed or angry you may feel about junk food at your child’s school, first take a deep breath! Remember that the teacher passing...

Bettina Siegel

Take Action

healthcare

01/30/15

Great news! Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown and other city leaders are going the extra mile to make sure our kids have the health coverage they need! Jacksonville was recently awarded a grant through the National League of Cities to connect uninsured kids with low-cost KidCare and Medicaid coverage. With more than 17,000 uninsured children in Duval County alone , this Cover Jacksonville campaign can help us go a long way toward decreasing the number of uninsured children in our community. This is important because when children have health insurance, they enjoy better health throughout...

Nina Perez

Raise your voice!

healthcare

01/30/15

Your voice isn’t being heard, yet. In early March, the Supreme Court of the United States will review a case that threatens to eliminate financial assistance for health coverage in about 36 states as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A ruling against the ACA could increase the number of uninsured by 8.2 million people and could increase the costs of health coverage up to 35% for all health consumers even if they don’t have ACA coverage. This legal case is about us and our health coverage. We are the ones using the preventive services, talking to our doctors, signing our families up for...

Nina Perez

Tweetchat

Food!

01/29/15

Looking for a healthy treat? Don't be deceived by claims of "fruit" in your snacks! Fruit snacks are everywhere: supermarkets, convenience stores, lunch boxes, cafeterias, vending machines... But the truth is these brightly colored processed foods tend to be all snack and no fruit. Join #FoodFri at 1pm, EST, on 1/30/2015, with @MomsRising and @CSPI to share and learn the truth about fruit snacks and healthier alternatives to snack on. Feel free to invite a friend (or two!) by clicking below! Tweet: Don't be deceived by claims of "fruit" in snacks! Join #FoodFri 1/30 @ 1pET to learn more: http...

Migdalia Rivera

Take Action!

Realistic & Fair Wages

01/29/15

I’m flat out inspired. Teens in Washington State are coming forward, standing up, and speaking out for fair pay. Here’s what some of them have to say: “Fair pay is extremely important to me as I start to think about my future. I’m starting to think about college and possible careers. My friends and I should be able to make the most out of our futures and have the same opportunity as everyone else. Women are worth more than spare change!" - Olivia, age 16 "I want to know that one day, all my hard work will pay off. I want to feel like I'm valued just as much as my male counterparts are in my...

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

family economic security Food! paid sick days

01/27/15

More than 100 years ago, after Upton Sinclair worked undercover in Chicago meatpacking plants, he revealed the abuse and exploitation of immigrant workers in the industry—including the tragic story of a worker who fell into a rendering tank. Public reaction to his great book, “ The Jungle ,” forced federal measures to make food safer—but not workers safer. There shouldn’t be any separation between good food and good jobs, because working conditions in the food system are everyone else’s eating conditions. Unions represent workers throughout the food system—farm workers, meat cutters, poultry...

Liz Shuler

healthcare

01/27/15

The new Congress is only a few weeks old but already some Senators and Representatives are threatening to make major changes to Medicaid, which would effect millions of families. We need moms to take action! Your letters will help us keep Medicaid funding off the chopping block before any momentum for negative change gets underway in Congress.

Elyssa Koidin Schmier

healthcare

01/27/15

As a doctor, my greatest fear is to be unable to help a patient when they need me the most. Likewise, I think the greatest fear of every parent is to see his or her child in pain and be powerless to help. For too many doctors and parents, these fears are becoming increasingly real with the rising problem of antibiotic resistance – when germs outsmart the medicines intended to treat them. Every year, antibiotic-resistant infections cause at least 2 million illnesses and over 23,000 deaths in the United States. If we do not take action to combat antibiotic resistance, those numbers will rise...

Dr. Beth Bell

environmental health

01/26/15

A Battle is Brewing Over EPA's Proposed Smog Standards

Lisa Garcia

healthcare

01/26/15

Dumped touches a nerve from page one. It touches on a subject that all women know too well yet is too complicated and painful to articulate: the mourning, and sometimes redemption, that comes from being dumped – or in Facebook-speak, “unfriended” -- by a sister-like friend. The anthology is very well written by established authors and bloggers, and covers the gambit of being dumped by downright bullies to friends who simply grew apart. At the start, I was appalled by some of the women’s stories. Let’s clarify: these women weren’t dumped. They were bullied . A couple of the women were isolated...