Mark your calendar!  The 2012 ASTPHND Annual Meeting, Traversing Challenges and Building Partnerships for Change, will be in picturesque Traverse City, Michigan.  The meeting will be at the Park Place Hotel Sunday, June 10th through Tuesday, June 12th.   We are also offering a training for Fruit and Vegetable Nutrition Coordinators and others interested in focusing on the Let's Move Salad Bars to School initiative.  Registration is now open!  You can click here to register.   Click here for complete details on the Traverse City meeting.

The Association of State & Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors (ASTPHND) is a non-profit membership organization that develops leaders in public health nutrition who work to strengthen policies, programs and environments at the state and national levels.  We welcome your involvement in our growing organization.  Learn more about us at About ASTPHND.

IOM Report Urges Greater Investment in Public Health.  For the Public's Health: Investing in a Healthier Future, is a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The report, developed by the Committee on Public Health Strategies to Improve Health, argues that the United States needs to invest more in its chronically underfunded public health system and spend public health dollars more efficiently to improve America's performance on health outcomes compared with peer nations.

UCLA is offering a small-grants research program focusing on the roles that the WIC program can play in improving nutrition in pre-conceptional and peri-conceptional periods.  This program is funded by USDA-FNS.  The grants will be for two years, up to $72,000, and require a partnership of an academic/research organization and a state or local WIC program.  The first round of applications is due June 8,  2012, with letters of intent due May 25, 2012.  Click here to view the full RFA.

In mid-April, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a new report calling for significant reforms to refocus America’s health system toward prevention of chronic diseases.  For the Public’s Health: Investing in a Healthier Future, recommends new health targets and changes in how public health is funded and organized.

The National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ), CDC, and Baby-Friendly USA invite hospitals to apply to be part of Best Fed Beginnings, a nationwide effort to improve maternity care and increase the number of Baby-Friendly hospitals in the United States.  Click here for application information.  Applications will be accepted through May 4 with decisions announced June 11th.

CDC has released an online training module, Using the World Health Organization (WHO) Growth Charts to Assess Growth with Children less than 2 Years of Age in the U.S., for health care providers and public health professionals who measure and assess growth of infants and young children. The purpose of the training is to provide professionals with expertise on using and interpreting the WHO growth charts.

Maps of the modified Retail Food Environment Index are now posted on the CDC-DNPAO webpage.  These maps can help identify census tracts within states or communities that either lack access to healthy food retailers or contain very high densities of fast food restaurants and convenience stores relative to the number of healthy food retailers.  States and communities can also use data from the mRFEI Data Table to create their own maps using GIS software or link the mRFEI data to other census-tract level data.

MyPlate for Moms.  The Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Division at the California Department of Public Health has released MyPlate for Moms/My Nutrition Plan for Moms.  MyPlate for Moms is targeted to pregnant and breastfeeding women.  This handout advises that women consume dairy and make half their plates vegetables and fruits, about one quarter grains and one quarter protein.  Foods that are high in fiber and low in sugar, solid fats or salt are also recommended. 

A new NIH study finds that interventions to prevent Type 2 diabetes gives positive returns.  Specifically, prevention programs that apply interventions tested in the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) clinical trial would improve quality of life for people who would otherwise develop type 2 diabetes.  The analysis of costs and outcomes in the DPP and its follow-up study is published in the April 2012 issue of Diabetes Care.

National Worksite Breastfeeding Support Project.  HHS's Office on Women's Health (OWH) is creating an online resource to showcase creative solutions for supporting nursing mothers in the workplace.  Please add your success story.  Click here to make a submission.

CDC sends out a monthly Beverage Bulletin, an electronic resource for practitioners interested in public health efforts to support healthier beverage intake.  To subscribe to this listserv, email Beverly Kingsley at CDC.

Current funding opportunities in public health nutrition.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presents Weight of the Nation™ 2012, May 7-9 in Washington, D.C.  Weight of the Nation is CDC's national conference on obesity prevention and control.  The theme for the 2012 conference is Moving Forward, Reversing the Trend.  Be sure to watch the documentary, The Weight of the Nation on HBO Monday May 14 and Tuesday May 15.  You can also host a screening of the documentary.  You can bring together community and state leaders, elected officials, media representatives, coalition members and others positioned to influence opinions or implement programs.  Click here to host an event and receive a screening kit, which includes event planning materials, discussion guides and other helpful information.  

Take a look at our new profile of Donna Speed and her work to train child care providers across Mississppi on the state's stronger nutrition standards.  This profile is a follow up to the ASTPHND Maternal and Child Health Nutrition Council's inventory of nutrition services and resources for the women, children and families served by the Title V MCH Block Grant.  Watch this space for future profiles of ASTPHND MCH Nutrition professionals' important work in their states!


Obesity Prevention Projects: Stories from ASTPHND Members.  In 2010, CDC-DNPAO developed State Program Highlights, summaries of state health departments’ projects to meet the goal of preventing and controlling obesity and other chronic diseases through healthful eating and physical activity.  To learn more about how these projects have progressed and about the important role state public health nutritionists play in moving these projects forward, ASTPHND spoke with the lead public health nutritionist for several of these projects.  We are pleased to share these updated stories with you.  Click here to read the updates on Amy Koren-Roth's work on New York State's Farm-to-Where-You-Are Program, Teresa Hill's work on South Carolina's Breastfeeding in the Workplace Program, and Diane Golzynski's work with the Michigan Food Policy Council.

The Produce for Better Health (PBH) Foundation is honoring the National Council of Fruit & Vegetable Nutrition Coordinators with the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters Champion Award for 2011.  This is the second year that that the Council is achieving this recognition!   PBH will  honor its award recipients at its Annual Meeting March 29-31 in Monterey, CA.

In December, the National Council of Fruit and Vegetable Nutrition Coordinators announced four recipients of the 2012 Salad Bar Mini-Grants.  These $15,000 awards will support salad bar projects in New Mexico, Alaska, Ohio and Washington.  Click here for more information on the projects.  These grants are made possible through funding from CDC-DNPAO.

ASTPHND and NACDD recently released the 2011 Survey on Most Important Diet and Nutrition Biomarkers.  The primary objective of this survey of public health nutritionists was to help CDC determine the diet and nutrition biomarkers that are of greatest importance for public health chronic disease prevention and control.  NACDD will use the findings from this 2011 survey to help guide its development of a pamphlet to accompany the Executive Summary of the second National Report on Biochemical Indicators on Diet and Nutrition in the U.S. Population.  Click here to read the Survey Report. 

ASTPHND Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools Web Page Now Live!  The ASTPHND Fruit and Vegetable Council is playing a lead role in promoting the First Lady's Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools Initiative.  The goal of this campaign is to launch salad bar programs in at least 6,000 schools around the nation within three years.  ASTPHND's salad bar page presents information, resources and tools that state fruit and vegetable coordinators can use to move this exciting campaign forward in their states.  Click here to go to the ASTPHND salad bar web page. 

Key listserv discussions now compiled on ASTPHND's Resources page.  ASTPHND is now posting on our website key discussion topics from the CDC's nutrition, physical activity and obesity listserv.  Listserv participants often ask other subscribers to share their experiences and materials.  ASTPHND is compiling questions and responses in the Resources section of the website.  For example this weblink will take you directly to the resources shared in response to a request for fact sheets for children about sugar sweetened beverages.  We recently created a number of new resources on a variety of topics including Tools to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Your Partnerships, Food Access Maps, and Babies at Work Programs.

Opportunities to attend webinars, teleconferences and in-person trainings.  We are now compiling information on a wealth of upcoming trainings and conferences.  Just click on the Eventstab on the upper left corner of this page and then Upcoming Events to view current conferences and workshops.

Supporting State Health Departments in Making a Difference on Obesity Prevention

Succession Management for ASTPHND Members

2011 Annual Meeting Presentations

Blueprint for Nutrition & Physical Activity: Cornerstones of a Healthy Lifestyle

Personnel in Public Health Nutrition

Moving to the Future Website

Public Health Workforce Survey Report

2010 Training Needs Assessment Report

Enhance Nutrition Services in Your State

The ASTPHND Board of Directors met on April 13, 2012. Here are highlights from the meeting:

The Board welcomed new Expanded Member Connie Gelfer (OH) and new Associate Members Heidi Brown (ID) and Bonnie Spear (AL).

The Board passed motions to:

• Revise the Associate Member dues requirement, effective for the 2013 year, to state that the $50 annual membership fee is for each individual, whether an individual or an organization / group application is submitted, with a $400 maximum organization fee.
• Approve the revised ASTPHND Partnership Policy.
• Approve submitting comments to the USDA-FNS on the Proposed Rule for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Nutrition Program.  Heidi Scarpitti is to approve the Association's final comments.
• Approve the ASTPHND – USDA-FNS workplan.
• Approve spending up to $8,000 of unrestricted funds to fully cover travel costs for Board members to attend the 2012 ASTPHND Annual Meeting for Board members whose state will not financially support their participation in the Annual Meeting.

Donna Speed reported that she attend the PBH and NFVA meeting in California and accepted the Public Health Partners Champions Award on behalf of ASTPHND and the Fruit & Vegetable Nutrition Council.

Click on Continue Story to view the March 2012 Board meeting minutes.

ASTPHND March 2012 Newsletter

ASTPHND January 2012 Newsletter

ASTPHND October 2011 Newsletter

ASTPHND August 2011 Newsletter

ASTPHND July 2011 Annual Meeting Newsletter

ASTPHND June 2011 Newsletter

ASTPHND 2010–2011 Annual Report

ASTPHND April 2011 Newsletter

ASTPHND February 2011 Newsletter

MCH Nutrition Council December 2010 Newsletter

ASTPHND October 2010 Newsletter

ASTPHND September 2010 newsletter

ASTPHND 2009 Annual Report

Healthy People 2020 and USDA End Childhood Hunger Update