Success Story: California

Since the 1990s, California has been a leader in childhood obesity prevention.  The state’s efforts recognize that preventing childhood obesity requires greater access to healthy foods, healthy school initiatives, healthy community design and collaborating to create healthier communities.

Increasing Access to Healthy Food

·         The state’s Healthy Food Purchase law provides increased access to fruits and vegetables in low-income communities.  The program makes available technical assistance and, in some cases, financing for small grocers to purchase, store and market fresh produce.  It also encourages food stamp recipients to purchase fresh produce by coordinating the use of electronic benefit transfers (EBT) at small groceries.

·         State legislation requires farmers markets to accept electronic benefit transfers (EBT), making fresh, local food more available to food stamp recipients.  The Department of Social Services provides free EBT equipment to farmers markets on a voluntary basis.

·         California was one of the first states to create a Farm to School Program, which connects schools with local farms to serve healthy meals in school, provide opportunities for health, nutrition and agriculture education and supports local farmers.  The state has several successful Farm to School Programs at the county and school district levels.

Promoting Healthy School Initiatives

·         The state Department of Education established a program that funds school districts and county offices of education to create instructional school gardens and to establish school garden salad bars or compost programs.

·         In 2005, the state established nutrition standards beyond those federally required.  Schools are prohibited from serving snacks with more than 35 percent of calories from fat, 10 percent of calories from saturated fat, 35 percent sugar by weight, and no more than 250 calories per item and entrees may not exceed 400 calories and 4 grams of fat per 100 calories.  In 2007, the state prohibited schools from selling and serving foods containing trans fats.  In 2008, this prohibition was expanded to include fried foods.

·         Soda has been banned from all school vending machines since 2007, and the state prohibits the sale of sugar-sweetened sports drinks in elementary, middle and high schools.  Recent legislation established beverage nutrition standards for child care facilities.

·         Since 2002, the California Wellness Task Force , a public/private partnership, has created and promoted programs and policies to increase access to healthy foods and physical activities in the state’s schools and workplaces.  One of the Task Force’s many initiatives is a pilot School Health Report Card (SHRC) , which allows schools to share health information about their student body with parents and other community members.  If the pilot is successful, the SHRC template will be made available to all California schools by 2011.

Supporting Healthy Community Design

·         In 2008, the state passed Complete Streets legislation, requiring cities and counties to include complete streets policies as part of their general development plans.

·         The state’s Safe Routes to School program makes grants to local governments for bicycle and pedestrian safety and traffic calming projects.  Similarly, the Safe Routes to Transit program funds improvements in bicycle and pedestrian access to public transit.

Collaborating to Create Healthier Communities

·         California’s Project LEAN , a partnership between the Department of Health Services and the Public Health Institute, works with state and local leaders in nutrition and physical activity to conduct programs for youth in communities throughout the state.  The project also creates resources on topics such as school wellness, physical education, safe routes to schools and stakeholder engagement, as well as policy implementation guides.

·         The governor established the Health in All Policies Task Force, facilitated by the California Department of Public Health.  The task-force coordinates with existing Strategic Growth Council working groups to identify priority programs, policies and strategies which improve the health of residents of California.