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Stephanie Vaughn is Marketing Manager for Voices for Healthy Kids, a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation working to help make each day healthier for all children.
Twitter: @Voices4HK
Stephanie Vaughn
Marketing Manager at Voices for Healthy Kids
Blog Post List
October 11, 2019
"I think the broader you can make the issue of hunger, the more successful your efforts will be. It’s critical that people have enough to eat and can access nutritious food, but if you connect that issue to economic development, to supporting farmers, to improving public health then it becomes a conversation that involves everyone and everyone becomes invested in helping it succeed.”
October 3, 2019
Every day, in communities across America, people with low wages face difficult tradeoffs when trying to cover the necessary expenses of daily life. These tradeoffs include balancing the costs of housing, health care, child care and transportation as well as the ongoing struggle to afford healthy food. In some neighborhoods, there may be very few or no places to buy healthy food, adding time and transit expenses to the price of groceries. That’s why more than 45 states offer incentive programs to help Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants fill their pantries with more fruits and vegetables.
September 23, 2019
New York City has more than 26,000 restaurants. Starting next year, those with children’s menus must offer healthier drinks, like milk and water, as the default drink — thanks to the city’s new Healthy Happy Kids’ Meals Law.
July 31, 2019
Through a new initiative, El Paso county is actively working to improve food retail infrastructure and bring grocery stores, community markets and mobile food stands to areas of the county with high poverty, few living wage jobs and lack of healthy and affordable food.
July 11, 2019
A new program called Peace Parks creates safe opportunities for teens and young adults who live in neighborhoods affected by crime to go out and have fun at night. San Francisco's sugary drink tax funds most of the program's budget.
May 21, 2019
Within Kansas City, MO, a baby born in one neighborhood had a life expectancy 15 years shorter than a child born just a few miles away. Communities Creating Opportunity (CCO),a driving force for social justice and health in Kansas City and a Voices for Healthy Kids grantee, responded to the challenge in many ways. That comprehensive approach to improving health, particularly in neighborhoods that historically have lacked access to financial investment and opportunities, helped Kansas City win a 2015 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize.
January 16, 2019
On Jan. 1, thanks to the Healthy-By-Default Kids' Meal Beverages Act, California became the first state to require water or milk as the beverage automatically offered with kids' meals at restaurants. By replacing sugary drinks with healthy options as the default beverages on kids' menus, the new law is a significant milestone in our collective efforts to encourage kids to eat and drink healthy.
January 4, 2019
Complete streets policies make communities and neighborhoods more livable by ensuring people can safely get where they need – to work, school, the library, grocery store, restaurants and shopping destinations. The good news is that 30 states and Washington, D.C. have adopted complete streets policies; however, only 17 of those have policies that go deeper with clear requirements for action. Thankfully, organizations across the country are working to resolve this issue. Read below to learn more about the recent successes in Milwaukee and other complete streets campaigns...
December 12, 2018
Nearly 1.9 million residents of New York City — almost a quarter of the city’s population — live in lower-income communities with limited access to healthy food retail, and data show they are at risk of poor nutrition and rising rates of heart disease. The American Heart Association in New York City, with support from a grant from Voices for Healthy Kids, aims to help residents address these issues by advocating for city funding that will directly impact this outcome.
May 23, 2018
On average, children today consume roughly 25 percent of their calories from eating out, and about 42 percent of children between the ages of two and nine eat fast food on any given day. That’s why restaurants are an important setting to encourage menu choices that are healthy for our kids.
March 16, 2017
The Navajo Nation Preparatory School in Farmington, New Mexico prides itself on the fact that it is the only Navajo-sanctioned, college-preparatory school for Native Americans - a school that serves some of the best and brightest students from the Navajo Nation. Students of the school stay in dorms, necessitated by the fact that the Navajo Nation covers more than 27 thousand square miles and many of the students live hours away from the school. But that necessity has also become an opportunity to work with students to develop an appreciation of and interest in whole health, which works to support the development needs of tribes.
January 27, 2017
The Lower Sioux Community is working increase access to healthier and more traditional foods in order to help reduce some of the diet-related health impacts many tribal members are experiencing.
August 22, 2016
In this era of political disagreement, it’s unusual to see political parties put aside their differences, join hands and work together for the greater good. But that’s exactly what happened recently in Minnesota around efforts to improve and increase access to healthy and affordable food. Minnesota is one of the lowest ranked states in terms of access to healthy and affordable foods, according to an April 2016 report prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Wilder Research. Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans currently live in areas where they have limited or no easy access to...