C&NN’s Comments to the Task Force on Childhood Obesity

Note: The following is in response to the call for public comments from First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. C&NN urges the newly created task force to consider active time outdoors in nature as a key tool in addressing obesity.

Dear Members of the Task Force on Childhood Obesity:

On behalf of the Children & Nature Network (C&NN), www.childrenandnature.org, we are pleased to submit comments in response to the Task Force on Childhood Obesity Request for Information. The mission of the Children & Nature Network (C&NN) is to build a worldwide movement to re-connect children and nature—creating social and environmental conditions in which all children will thrive. We are a relatively new non-profit organization, co-founded in 2006 by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods:  Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, and others; however, our work now extends to more than 70 initiatives in more than 40 states throughout the US.  Our grassroots, community and state-based leaders report they engaged in the range of 900,000 to 1.5 million children, youth and their families last year alone as participants in the process of re-connecting children and nature. School and community gardens, nature-based play areas, and nature clubs for families are examples of the results being made available through the leadership of this grassroots network.

Read the C&NN letter in its entirety by following the link on this page.