thanks for joining me and this september is childhood obesity month and do you know that 1 in 3 children in the united states is either overweight or obese. one in three. welcome. one in three. has that gotten worse or has it been that way for awhile. >> it seems to be worse. and in d.c. we

>> why is is that? >> it's one of the things as a city and area we're working with and trying to make sure that we get our kids healthier. >> is it the district, parts of northern virginia or is it mostly in the district? >> at least for the numbers i know for the district about 18% at least of teenagers are overweight and an additional 15% above and beyond that are diagnosed with obesity. >> is it hit one demographic worse than the other? low income? does poverty play a role in this? >> poverty plays a role in this and minority families are at higher risk for obesity and are effected to a larger extent by the epidemic. >> is that because of the food desert where you just can't get fresh vegetables and you don't have the grocery stores available and you're looking at the high

of processed food? is that what we're dealing with? >> there's a lot of different factors that play a role but that's a huge part of it and it's really difficult for a family to want to eat well but don't have access and the cheap foods are the less helpful ones. >> how do you start combatting this? this has been a problem for awhile. >> certainly. what's really important to consider is there's lots of things we can do from different areas. from policy to ill proving neighborhoods and communities to making sure that people have access to the things they need and certainly our job at children's is helping families do healthy things and things good for their entire family. >> you're at the obesity institute. what tow do you do there? >> we work with families to see where they may be having difficulties and help them do things that make

so a lot of things contribute to abees obesity but you can help manage and prevent it and that's what we're there too to the do. >> like what? >> helping kids and families eat better. understand where their calories are coming from. what healthy foods they can eat and engaging in activity and physical activity and doing things as a family that promote health. >> that's not easy in low income communities because you're often dealing with a mother who is head of household maybe holding down a couple of jobs is is not there to oversee her children and what they're putting in their mouths and how do you control a teenager. so you need to start early with good food, what's the word i'm looking for, habits. >> absolutely. >> but that's not easy. children are picky eaters. this can be a nightmare for a parent. >> it is a

parents. all parents want their kids to be healthy and things can get in the way of that. working a number of jobs and not being able to see what your kids are eating and relying on the schools and the schools not providing the best types of food and we recognize that and one of the things we do is try to help families work through the barriers but starting young. >> and just as this town is hey let's eat out, i look at my -- i wrote it at one point because there was a place to put them and we don't cook much in this town and in this day and age despite all the food shows on tv. we watch other people cooking and how do you get people back into the kitchen and back to their stove? >> i think by trying to make it manageable and showing families that sometimes it can be easier and less expensive to do that

and making sure that they have access to resources and there's lots of resources available for what kinds of things you can cook and one of the nice things is is that getting kids involved with the cook process helps them accept more foods and gives them the tools and the resources they need and as kids become more and more competent with that parents can also spread is the workload in a good way. helping mix things up or cut things up can be an important way to get them to understand how much fun it can be to cook and the value of healthy food. >> we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back. z2fwdz z16fz

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>> we're sitting in a studio now where the previous show had a

cooked vegetarian or vegan tacos so we're smelling tacos and is there anyway that people will adopt vegetarianism or look at other types of eating as a way to break the cycle of obesity? >> what we learned is that to eat healthy it has to be easy to do and taste good so it has to be something that people enjoy doing. anybody can force themselves to do something difficult for a week or two but it doesn't last and what we want to help people do is adopt healthy lifestyles that will continue with them so finding things that appeal to them or that they enjoy eating or making whether it be vegetarian or other types of eating and types of food that's what is most important is for each family to find what works for them and what they enjoy. >> are getting the farmers markets out into these

markets going out there and are people aware that the food stamp program will allow them to buy it with food stamps. >> i hope people realize that's a good way to have access to good food that can be healthy. but there's resources available to see how they can make it last and enjoy the fresh produce. >> even gardening. community

is there a medical option for children? i know they work for adults. >> obesity is a complex illness and so many things contribute to it and we haven't found a solution that works for everybody and one of the things that we do is work with each individual family and child to see if there's other health concerns to help manage but trying to do what we can and what that family can in order to make even sometimes very small changes to the way they live their lives that could increase the health of the child and with children little things overtime make a huge difference. >> children have a rapid metabolism so if you can get them outside and exercising a little bit and get them moving and off the couch and away from the video games. how difficult though is that to get people out. >> sometimes it's easy for kids. sometimess

kids are less athleticicly inclined or less interested in it or neighborhoods that are less safe but there's resources in your own living room. there's youtube videos that are movement oriented that could be fun for kids and can be done even in a small space with nothing else. >> is there a role that the schools can play? the cafeteria at my school was like that wasn't really pleasant? well they tried to make a big difference to make sure that it's of high quality and has a lot of variety and schools can do that. that needs to trickle over into after care programs and other things and maybe that's when they're eating more snack foods that are less h

we had a coke machine. one. they have falls of vending machines now. that's not good. >> it's not so helpful and it can help fund schools and provide extra cushion there but it's not that great for kids to have that right in front of your face. certainly for kids that aren't necessarily that good at decision make and aren't good at short-term thinking about what looks good versus long-term. maybe if i eat that i'm not going to be healthy down the road so trying to manage the environment so that the easy and appealing things are healthy is something huge families and schools can do to help them make good choices. >> thank you so much with the obesity institute at the children's national health system and we'll put your information on our website so people can get ahold of you. >> great. >> thank you so much. we'll be right back.

>> we are shifting from obesity in children to hunger among our senior and joining me is emily allen. i am stunned in america a very wealthy country that we have hunger at all but hunger among seniors, how bad is it and why is it? >> well that's a good question and it is. it surprises people. there's a lot of conversation around childhood hunger and even here in the d.c. area 1 in five seniors. that's shocking isn't it? >> why, what's causing this? >> a lotof

individuals that worked hard all of their lives and we look at 50 and older and it could be a job loss. maybe they were doing fine and then a job loss occurred and suddenly they're struggling. it could be that as we heard a lot of people don't save enough for retirement and when they do they're struggling to make ends meet and it's on going and what's interesting is its easy to say the statistics. but close your eyes and think about anyone in your life that's struggling. and it makes it real then. >> i would imagine that some of these people are so proud they may not raise their hand. >> you are so right. particularly this generation of older ts

necessarily ask for help so they don't take advantage of the benefits that are out there but there's very very low uptake among older adults of programs that exist to supplement their income so that they can, in fact, get the food that they need. >> and aarp declared this the summer of service to seniors. tell me about that. what issues is that addressing? >> sure, absolutely. so the mission is really around creating and advancing the most effective solutions that help secure the essentials. that's can you put food on the table. do you have a roof over your head. do you have enough income coming in to meet your basic needs so it

around senior poverty and the issues they're facing but most importantly it's the fact that seniors are going hungry every day and while we're very focused on long-term solutions to senior hunger we want to raise awareness by a very particular event so we are packing 3 million meals because we know while we're in this pattern of looking at long-term solutions we know that people are going hungry tonight so we want to be there to really provide meals in the immediate and so that's really what our summer of service is about. >> how do you get it -- how do you identify who needs them? especially if they might be quitely suffering in their homes? >> absolutely. really good question so summer of services really involved. it started here in d.c. a number of years ago and we started with a meal pack on the mall as part of our celebration of service and day of service around 9/

the victims and the heros of 9/11 so we do a national meal pack on the mall, meal pack challenge and we have done that a number of years here in d.c. very exciting event. 4,000 volume unteers come out and it's amazing the heart behind the people that want to come out so this year we started to take it on the road. we started in memphis in june. went to denver in july and minute period yap lis st. paul in august and what has been really exciting is we worked closely with the food banks in the local areas so here in d.c. we're working closely with the capital area food bank and so they obviously are very close to the ground and know, in fact, how to distribute the meals very quickly, in fact, in all likelihood the meals will be in the hands of seniors and others that week so it can be a very immediate thing. >> we'll take a quick break and come back and talk more about this and what you can do to help a senio

suffering and hungry and what you can do to help them. we'll be right back.

welcome back. we're talking about a hunger among our seniors and talking about how you can help -- we have so many seniors living in our neighborhoods. what can we do to make sure that he or she is okay. >> great question. one thing focused on a lot is isolation and so often older adults are living alone and seniors are living alone. maybe a spouse died or partner has died so checking in on them and making sure that, in fact, they have what they need. we think of hung

case do they have enough money to put food on the table. particularly ward to a the end of the month. maybe they have run out of funds so they're struggling to eat every day so i think just checking on people and making sure that they're doing okay. and connecting them in some ways they're not doing okay. are there home delivered meal programs or snap assistance that can get them what they need. >> can they call the aarp foundation services to get ideas or connect you with someone. >> sure. people can always go to our website aarp foundation.org and look at resources. there's benefit screenings and things like that. tools and resources but a lot in local areas as well that they can tap into. >> then there's just the old fashioned thing of we used to do sunday suppers or whatever a

we would invite, you know, the neighbor over sometimes my elderly father kept telling me i wasn't hungry and when i would take him out to dinner he would eat a lot and maybe as you talked about the isolation. maybe if they just had someone visiting with them. community is b an important part. >> and part of it is highlighting and building awareness among people. >> we're excited to return to the mall. 1.5 million meals and working to get those meals out there and

for seniors because we know it's not just about having food but it's about the right kind of food too and the nutrition factor so hunger can be a health issue as well. >> tell me about the programs when we pay our dues to aarp does it go toward this? >> no, in part i suppose aarp is really a but we have corporate foundations and an amazing number of sponsors. and united health care so they joined us really recognizing the importance of this issue to really highlight and raise awareness and also make sure that there's food in our food banks and food on the table for seniors. >> tell me about that credit card. if you get the aarp

just quickly, some of the money will go toward the foundation? >> absolutely. chase has been a huge supporter of our drive to end hunger for a number of years because they really recognize that across the board this is an important issue. it's something that we can, in fact, solve but we have to act and there's an amazing amount of volunteers that have come out. over 4,500 volunteers will join us of all ages. >> that's exciting too. >> come out. we have a huge interactive experience where people can learn more and it's people of all ages. there's little ones all the way up to old area adults. >> thank you so much. emily allen senior vice president of aarp foundation programs. thank you so much. so get your kids moving and go knock on doors with a casserole and go check on your seniors. thanks for joining us.

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