On June 11, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius
launched the Let’s Move Cities and Towns component of the Let’s Move!
campaign at the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City.
Addressing an audience of more than 400 mayors and municipal staffs, Sebelius
encouraged local officials to adopt a long-term, sustainable and holistic
approach to fight child obesity in their communities.
Let’s Move Cities and Towns reaffirms the commitment first lady
Michelle Obama made to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January to work in
partnership with local leaders to tackle the challenge of child obesity.
“You occupy a unique position in your community,” Obama told
the Conference of Mayors via video, according to a press release. “You can
bring communities together around great challenges, you know how to develop
effective solutions, and you can spur action at the grassroots unlike anyone
else.”
Let’s Move Cities and Let’s Move Towns asks local communities
to support the Let’s Move Initiative and its four pillars: helping parents
make healthy choices, creating healthy schools, providing access to healthy and
affordable food, and promoting physical activity.
“Mayors and local leaders are critical to the Let’s Move!
Campaign,” Sebelius said. “We recognize that every community is
different, and every town requires a distinct approach. We designed Let’s
Move Cities and Towns to empower local leaders to take steps that will have a
real impact on their own unique communities, whether that’s building
sidewalks and parks, supporting local farmers markets, or bringing healthier
food into schools.”
Throughout the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America
have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America is overweight
or obese. Obama launched the Let’s Move! campaign in February to solve the
problem of childhood obesity within a generation.
