Bronx Parks Deserve Their Fair Share

New York City Parks are not adequately funded and maintained at a level that is consistent throughout the city. When we look at our parks in the Bronx and compare them with Central Park or Prospect Park, it is difficult not to think we are getting the short end of the funding stick. We have a new Mayor, (will have) a new Parks Commissioner and there is no better time than now to make some changes, to shake things up some. The status quo is not working. I am hoping that the new Parks Commissioner will implement changes to start moving things in the right direction. 

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park was founded in 1992 by Bronx residents in response to a New York Times article describing the impact of declining NYC Department of Parks and Recreation budgets for parks like Van Cortlandt that lacked wealthy benefactors. Twenty years later, the Bronx Parks Department is still not adequately funded. With the largest NYC Park, Pelham Bay, and the 3rd largest park, Van Cortlandt, the Bronx has more parkland than any other borough. But we often wonder if we are getting our fair share of the Parks Department’s budget to maintain these parks at the level that Bronxites deserve. 

Private conservancies and other public/private partnerships raise hundreds of millions of dollars to keep Central Park, the High Line, Prospect Park and a limited number of other parks in pristine condition. These private charities are thus solving, for now, their own maintenance problems. This is not a problem in and of itself except that it gives some people the false impression that the parks funding problem is solved. In the past twelve years, the City, in addition to other funding sources, also has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for capital improvements in a handful of new flagship parks, like Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governor’s Island. But for the vast majority of parks, there remain serious budget shortfalls for their maintenance. 

Bronx park support groups are doing what they can to help close the gap between the current budget allocations and what Bronx parks really need. These groups raise money to provide special events, educational and cultural programming and work with volunteers to clean up their neighborhood’s parks. Representatives pound the pavement asking their elected officials to provide capital funding to restore neglected park facilities. But given the economic demographics of the Bronx, the fundraising capacity of these organizations is limited in a way that the Central Park Conservancy is not. 

Van Cortlandt Park is 1,146 acres (yes, it’s bigger than Central Park) with the first public golf course in America, the oldest building still standing in the Bronx, numerous sporting fields, over 500 acres of forest, a freshwater lake, a nationally renowned Cross Country Course and 20 plus miles of hiking trails. However, Van Cortlandt Park will never be bordered by Central Park West and 5th Avenue. Does its location diminish its importance? Van Cortlandt Park is important to the thousands of community members who consider it their backyard and many others that visit to hike, run, swim, play and more. I urge Mayor De Blasio and the soon to be Parks Commissioner to make a greater commitment to addressing the deficiencies in Bronx Parks than prior administrations have been willing to do. We need a multifaceted approach of greater maintenance budgets and creative, alternative revenue strategies that will work outside of the most visible parks in New York’s wealthiest neighborhoods. 

This blog post was written by Christina Taylor, Executive Director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. 

Food UnEarthed: Uncovering the Truth About Food at PS 132

Racial and ethnic disparities in disease rates are not more apparent anywhere than in the Bronx. But what most people don’t know is that most disease is caused by what Dr. David L. Katz, the Director of Yale’s Prevention Research Center describes as the 3 F’s:  feet (lack of exercise), fork (poor food choices partly as a result of food deserts/lack of healthy food), and fingers (tobacco use). That’s right – most diseases – type 2 diabetes, heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, many cancers, and many autoimmune diseases are caused by “lifestyle.” The estimate is that about 75% of these diseases are caused by lifestyle, and only about 25% are caused by genetics. By changing lifestyle, we could eliminate 80% of all heart disease and strokes, 90% of type 2 diabetes, and as much as 60% of cancers (about half of these are caused by diet and the other half by tobacco).

But if the U.S. Dietary Guidelines are supposed to help us eat healthy, why is it that we keep getting heavier and sicker? A clue might be found in New York Times’ reporter Michael Moss’s book “Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” in which he reports the food industries concerted efforts to make their food irresistible – or to put it another way, addictive. They call it the “bliss point.” That’s the exact level of salt, sugar, and fat that will want to make us keep eating more, but not too little or so much that we find it less appealing.

How do we fight multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, campaign donations to elected officials or candidates, processed foods designed with the “bliss point” in mind, and misleading information on food packaging?

The answer is education. Enter the Coalition for Healthy School Food. Each Wednesday, CHSF teacher Tashya Knight and Program Director Kelley Wind come to PS132 to bring their curriculum, Food UnEarthed: Uncovering the Truth About Food to 4 classes of 5^th graders.

Students become detectives and work to uncover the truth about food. In addition to nutrition, students learn about food politics, media literacy, how labels lie, food and the environment, and even a little bit about the animals raised for food.

The focus is on “big picture” nutrition. Because it’s not so important that oranges and broccoli have vitamin C or carrots have vitamin A. It’s important that we eat more whole plant foods: vegetables, fruits, legumes (beans, lentils, split peas), whole grains, nuts and seeds. That might not sound that exciting, but the truth is there is a huge world of delicious – and healthy – foods that can be made from whole plant foods. Plants are the only source of fiber in the diet – and the only source of phyto-nutrients – those special nutrients that help us fight cancer. It’s also important that we eat less animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, fish, and seafood) and processed foods (foods containing refined grains, added sugar, added oils or fats, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or trans fats). Animal products are the only source of cholesterol in the diet and the primary source of saturated fat. Regardless of what you have heard about them in the popular media, the research is quite clear – we should eat (and drink) less animal products. The same is true of processed foods. The fact is that a diet high in processed foods and animal products results in disease and not feeling well. Not only does it harm our physical body, but our mood as well.

Another thing it is important for students (and adults) to understand is the myths surrounding the “macro” nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. “Carbs” are not bad. REFINED carbohydrates are. UNREFINED carbohydrates should be the basis of our diet. Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes are all primarily carbohydrates, and they are unrefined carbohydrates – these are good and healthy. Fats are not bad – they are important for our health. But there are fats we should eat for health, and fats we should eat less of, which harm our health. The really good fats are nuts, seeds, avocados, and olives. These are whole foods. The fats we should eat less of are the kinds found in animal products, and foods with added oils. We should be especially careful of trans fats. Despite labels that say “0 grams of trans fats” you can know if there are trans fats in a food if you spot “partially hydrogenated” on the ingredient list. How can this be so? The food industry talked the government into rounding down to 0 if there was less than half a gram per serving. The thing is, most people don’t eat one serving, especially of the kinds of foods that have trans fats in them, and the World Health Organization said that no level can be considered safe. About half of all the trans fats we consume are actually naturally occurring in foods and  beverages that come from cows – or other ruminant animals. Finally, there is a protein myth. Yes we need protein to grow – but most people get two or three times more than they need. And most get it from animal products, which also come in a package with cholesterol and saturated fat – and no fiber (fiber is only found in plant foods, cholesterol is only found in animal foods).

Whole plant foods come with packages of fiber and phytonutrients, don’t have any cholesterol, and are low in fat. All whole plant foods have protein, and we should get enough as long as we eat enough calories – even if we weren’t eating beans and tofu. The plant foods that have more concentrated proteins, that most people like to replace their meat, cheese, fish, seafood, and eggs with, are legumes (which includes beans, lentils, split peas, and peanuts) soy products (the healthiest types being tofu and tempeh – some of the others are quite processed), and Seitan, which is made from the protein part of wheat. The grain quinoa also has a lot of protein, as do green peas (which is where split peas come from). Gluten-containing grains also have a fair amount of protein. We need protein and it is important for our body – but we don’t need to worry about it. If we are eating enough calories and a basic variety of foods, it would be hard to not get enough. The more we cut back on animal products, and the more we focus on whole plant foods in our diet, the better it is for our health and the health of the planet.  

We teach these concepts to the students to help them become critical thinkers about food, and to empower them so they know that they are in control of their current and future health; then we teach them how they can realistically make healthy choices to do so.

In a recent class, one student reported that she had been eating less chips. Another student said she eats less junk food and more fruits and vegetables. In a recent class about sugar we discussed how much sugar is in chocolate milk. Children are much more observant than we often give them credit for, and the hypocrisy of our culture is not lost on them.  One student pointed out “if we are supposed to be a healthy America then why do they keep feeding us unhealthy junk food?”

Our classes are every week, and each class is accompanied by a healthy plant-based snack. We have found that many students have very limited experiences with fruits and vegetables at home, and that some students never eat fruits or vegetables. In the classroom they are learning that they taste good and make them feel good.  For children that can't get them at home, fortunately the lunch room at school is loaded with a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Food UnEarthed: Uncovering the Truth About Food is a year’s worth of valuable lessons for students so that they can change the course of their future. We find that the students are sharing the information with their friends and their families, and spreading the word that they don’t want to be targets of a food industry gone haywire!

If you are interested in bringing Food UnEarthed to your school, please contact Amie Hamlin, Executive Director, Coalition for Healthy School Food at amie@healthyschoolfood.org or 607-272-1154.

PS 132 is a partner in the Healthy Schools NY Program, focused on improving nutrition, physical education, and physical activity in New York public schools.  For more information, please contact Kelly Moltzen, Healthy Schools NY Program Coordinator at Bronx Health REACH, at kmoltzen@institute2000.org or 212-633-0800 x 1328.

This blog post was written by Amie Hamlin, Executive Director of the Coalition for Healthy School Food.

Improving Access to Physical Education for All NYC Students

New York State requires that all schools provide students in all grades with physical education (PE). However, in New York City, the majority of schools are failing to meet the state PE mandate. Several reports demonstrate the breadth of the problem. A New York Times article found that about 1 in 5 NYC high school students reports having no gym class in an average week. An audit conducted by former Comptroller Liu reported that none of the 31 NYC elementary schools visited was meeting the New York State PE mandate.

While the problem affects nearly all NYC schools, schools in neighborhoods that are predominantly low-income and Black or Latino are even more unlikely to provide adequate PE. The disproportionate lack of access to PE for low-income students of color only exacerbates existing racial disparities and inequities in child obesity and academic achievement.

Ensuring access to PE for all students in NYC could go a long way to addressing these health and educational inequities. There is a plethora of evidence demonstrating that PE improves student health, reduces child obesity, and improves academic performance, including test scores. Yet with all that said, why are schools failing to provide their students with adequate PE instruction?

The cause of the problem is manifold. Many schools are simply unaware of the requirements. The PE standards as laid out by the state require that students in grades K through 6 receive 120 minutes of PE per week. The students in grades 7 and 8 should receive at least 90 minutes of PE per week and all students in grades 7-12 should have at least three gym classes per week in one semester and two classes per week in the other semester. Recess cannot be counted toward meeting these minimum time standards.

Yet even when schools have knowledge of the requirements, many struggle to meet them. Some schools utilize non-certified instructors for PE, which may prevent students from receiving quality physical education instruction. And space limitations due to co-location of multiple schools in buildings with one gymnasium also impede a school’s ability to provide all students with adequate PE time.

So what can be done? With a new mayoral administration bent on tackling the city’s widening inequities, education and health advocates alike are coming together to raise the importance of providing quality and comprehensive PE to all of NYC’s students. New York Lawyers for the Public Interest has teamed up with a wide variety of stakeholders, including Bronx Health REACH, to advocate for improved access to PE in all NYC public schools.

The NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE) has the opportunity to reverse the trend in PE and work to support and ensure compliance with the state PE mandate. The NYC DOE should provide schools with resources on the PE requirement by posting information on their website and sharing best practices across the five boroughs, including examples of co-located schools that have coordinated schedules to meet the PE time requirements. The NYC DOE should also document and regularly report schools’ compliance.

The NYC DOE should also adequately staff the department with professionals who can provide schools with support and technical assistance with offering a comprehensive PE curriculum. The NYC DOE could work toward these goals within the Office of School Wellness, which it jointly oversees with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The new mayoral administration is in charge of one of the largest public school systems in the nation, with one of the most diverse student populations. We hope that the new mayoral administration will improve the physical and academic wellbeing of millions of students and take a step to advance health and educational justice by making improved access to quality physical education a priority.

This blog post was written by Sascha Murillo, a Community Organizer in the Health Justice Program at New York Lawyers in the Public Interest, and can also be found on the NYLPI Health Justice page here.)

NYC Takes Lead Once Again with New E-Cigarette Ban

As one of the final acts as Mayor, Michael Bloomberg signed into law a bill to expand the Smoke-Free Air Act to include electronic cigarettes. It seems fitting that as one of his final official acts, Mayor Bloomberg was signing a bill to expand New York City’s successful smokefree law.  New York City recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the law, which protects workers and patrons from cigarette smoke at our workplaces, bars, and restaurants.  It’s hard to even remember that just over ten years ago, a night out in New York often left you smelling of smoke and forcing you to endure hours of secondhand smoke exposure.                                

More recently, our smokefree bars and restaurants have become increasingly filled with secondhand electronic cigarette emissions.  As e-cigarettes have increased in popularity, New Yorkers are once again being unwillingly exposed to potentially harmful emissions.  While we await the US Food and Drug Administration to assess their authority to regulate e-cigarettes, we are glad that the City of New York has asserted its own authority to protect the health of its residents, workers, and visitors.  Not only have e-cigarettes not been proven to be safe, they also have not been approved as a smoking cessation tool.

A couple of important facts to remember about e-cigarettes:

• This new law does not ban e-cigarettes, but simply restricts where they are allowed to be used.
• We also want to remind anyone who is thinking about quitting smoking to talk to their doctors, call 311 and consider using one of the seven FDA-approved smoking cessation products.

To learn more about e-cigarettes, please visit www.nycsmokefree.org  

This blog post was written by Michael Seilback, Vice President, Public Policy & Communications, at the American Lung Association of the Northeast.