MOCAN Child Care Work Group Meeting
September 9, 2013
Attendees: Robin Gammon, Deborah Markenson, Barbara Keene, Diedre, Megan Klenke, Amy
Stringer-Hessel, Sarah Gable, Cindy DeBlauw, Nola Martz
New Educare program- Access to Healthy Foods
Jo Britt Rankin has received a request for child care provider materials for the initiative. Sara
Gable will be sending a response. The Educare target audience is low-income. They are working
on this program in Boone County. Educare is seeking information for individual families such as
brochures. They would like to encourage intake of local foods and use farmers markets. Sara
will forward the email to the MOCAN cc group. Deborah recommended that the state DSS
office also receive our response to this email.
Key talking points to include in the infographic for legislators
MOCAN members will be meeting with legislators to discuss key issues related to MOCAN
priorities.
Examples:
 Approximately one in 4 are overweight or obese by their 6th birthday.
 Three times more children are obese today than just 30 years ago. The food and
fitness environments of our children have changed drastically during this time frame
putting our children at higher risk…(give example for young children)
 More and more children are being diagnosed with obesity-related conditions that
were traditionally only seen in adults — like type 2 diabetes and high blood
pressure. Even more disheartening, many of these kids will experience serious
conditions like heart disease, cancer, and stroke as adults.
 There is a sense of urgency to focus our efforts and help young children and their
families lay foundation for healthy habits as their bodies and brains develop.
 Unhealthy food preferences and inactive play habits are hard to break once they get
hard-wired.
 Child care licensing standards and their enforcement are making a big difference in
the practices of child care providers to support healthy habits in our youngest
children.
 Supports from the Child and Adult Care Food Program and….also are making a big
difference in helping child care providers provide healthy foods.
 Obesity is a complex issue that requires coordinated community supports which is
the focus of MOCAN's efforts
Other suggestions:
 Trends in childhood obesity – the CDC maps reflecting changes in obesity rates.
Maps of obesity rates have been powerful visual. County level information is
available on CDC website
 Shortened lifespan due to obesity.
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The “ask” for legislators- invest in child care infrastructure through child care
licensing.
Need to use infographic as tool to communicate common message to key
stakeholders.
Key points could also drive future requests for licensing changes.
Eat Smart and Move Smart programs should be listed as effective efforts that occur
in MO. There is value in listing accomplishments and also identifying what still needs
to be done. 3 sections 1. The problem 2. What is working 3. Areas of improvement
needed.
Recommendations for changes to the physical activity and play licensing rules and regulations
We already agreed we would wait on making recommendations to the foods served during the
previous meeting. The group decided to wait for revised USDA rules before taking action on
food.
Over time licensing rules have been “tweaked”. The play issues have not been reviewed in
about 20 years. The rules were developed to address appropriate child development. But the
rules do not really address the moderate/vigorous physical activity issue. The rules need to be
reviewed to ensure they address this issue. Sara would be happy to review the current rules
and compare them to other states rules and best practices. Deborah’s co-workers could review
Sara’s recommendations provide feedback. Megan has been conducting a review of other
states’/organizations best practices and offered to assist with this review. Sara will forward the
article she referenced in the call. The group will review all resources at the next MOCAN
meeting.
Update on the Nemours Taking Steps program from Megan Klenke
Learning collaborative launched in each of the geographic areas. Learning sessions were
conducted in Columbia, Springfield and St. Louis in August. At least 20 centers participated in
each session. A maximum of 30 centers will be accepted in each region. The next session is
planned for October.
The homework from the first round of session is the NAPSACC assessment of policies and
environment. Webinars are planned to assist centers with completing assessment and bringing
teams together. The webinars will be hosted by operational partners in each geographic
location.
Megan is collaborating with other partners such as Extension and DHSS to maintain
enthusiasm/momentum of initiative. Deborah suggested that a center from each region be
identified as a success story. These centers could be called upon to share their successes with
key decision makers.
Other states are experiences a variety of successes in their recruiting efforts. The approaches
vary based upon the agency administering the program. The R&R has been successful due to
their previous connections with providers. Achieving Eat Smart status has been a motivation for
some centers’ participation.
Worksite wellness program for child care staff and opportunities for parent engagement
Megan provided a Taking Steps module on wellness for child care staff with Robin. The group
can review and determine how it can be used. Pat Simmons- the worksite wellness chair asked
if providers could be surveyed on wellness practices. The worksite group had discussed
developing a wellness toolkit for schools.
The group decided to focus on physical activity licensing rules/regulations vs worksite project
due to limited time and resources. Additional understanding of child care provider wellness is
needed in the future. Anecdotally many providers are overweight/obese and could personally
benefit from worksite wellness. But as a role model for children there is an important benefit as
well.
Team Nutrition Grant
Barbara reported DHSS received the full funded grant.
Move Smart Guidelines
The goal is to have Move Smart Guidelines to be released by 10/1/13.