As the federal budget contracts and political conflicts grow, nutrition policy advancements are more likely to occur on the state and local level rather than federal. N. Chapman Associates, Inc. and its nonprofit, Advocates for Better Children’s Diets (ABCD), turned their focus on promoting nutrition and health initiatives at the local level. For the American Heart Association, we wrote model legislation to limit use of trans fatty acids in food service operations and tracked the adoption in locales nationwide. For the Pew Kid’s Safe and Healthy Food Campaign, the firm developed grassroots materials to motivate local school districts to advocate and adopt strong nutrition standards that meet the dietary guidelines. For the DC Department of Health (DCDOH), ABCD, working with over 350 local organizations, prepared the Working for a Healthy Community: DC Overweight and Obesity Action Plan for 2010-2015 that has served as a baseline for legislative initiatives such as the DC Healthy Schools Act and the DC Healthy Tots Act as well as program initiatives. Placing a priority on healthy eating habits of our youngest led ABCD to develop materials, conduct training, and create a training video on Nutrition and Physical Activity Wellness for child development facilities, with funding from DC DOH.
