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TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
TODD STAPLES
COMMISSIONER 

COMING TO A SCHOOL NEAR YOU - THE 3E'S OF HEALTHY LIVING IN DIGITAL ANIMATION
Commissioner Staples prepares to launch new campaign with a call to action for all Texas students.

Interactive Tools 

AUSTIN - In honor of National School Lunch Week, Oct. 12-16, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples has announced the Texas Department of Agriculture is releasing a trailer or sneak peek of a digitally animated video created to encourage Texas students to adopt the 3E's of Healthy Living - Education, Exercise and Eating Right. The video is part of a larger campaign called "Texans Bring It!" designed to engage youth to make decisions that will help them live healthy lives free from obesity-related illnesses.

"By removing fried foods and foods of minimal nutritional value, we have worked closely with school districts to bring the most nutritious meals to Texas school cafeterias," Commissioner Staples said. "Unfortunately, even these great strides are not enough to win the war against childhood obesity in our state. Now we are asking students and parents to join us in this fight with one simple question, 'How will you Bring It?'"

The "Texans Bring It!" campaign and call to action recognizes individual value, talent, responsibility and collaboration toward a healthier Texas. The digitally animated, 30-second video called MyPyramid Café, which refers to the USDA Food Pyramid, takes place in a school cafeteria inspiring students to see healthy foods in a new way and to stay fit. MyPyramid Café will be released on Nov. 1 and will run in middle schools across Texas through Channel One News, the award-winning news broadcast reaching more than 6 million students nationwide, daily. The campaign will include an interactive Web site to encourage student participation and a tour that will feature an interactive bus with showtimes of the video and a wall where students can write what they will bring into their lives to stay fit and healthy.

"Texans Bring It!" is a collaboration among TDA, USDA, Critical Mass Interactive, Street Attack and CieL Productions in association with 39K Productions, with much of the work being donated to help curb Texas' dangerous obesity trend among children.

"School meals are a great way to ensure children are getting a healthy diet, but they are not enough," Commissioner Staples said. "It's time for all parents, teachers and community leaders to lead by example and encourage the 3E's of Healthy Living - Education, Exercise and Eating Right, and for students themselves to decide they want to live better, longer lives."

Students who want to be the first to see the MyPyramid Café video can sign up now on the trailer's Web site.

More About Obesity

According to Trust for America's Health, Texas ranks 20th in childhood obesity with 32 percent of children ages 10-17 considered obese. Texas also ranks 14th for adult obesity with 28 percent of adults considered obese. Research shows an overweight child at age 12 has a 75 percent chance of being overweight as an adult.

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts found that Texas businesses spent an estimated $3.3 billion in 2005 on costs related to obesity. In two decades, the obesity rate in Texas more than doubled.

More About National School Lunch Week

National School Lunch Week was established in 1963 to help raise awareness of the role the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) plays in the nutritional health of students. The NSLP currently provides low-cost or free lunches for more than 3 million Texas schoolchildren daily. In 2003, the TDA became the state's administering agency for the program in public schools. In 2007, TDA began administering the NSLP to private and faith-based schools in the state.

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More TDA press releases are also available at www.TexasAgriculture.gov.
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