Hi, I'm Jamie Bussel.
I'm a Senior Program Officer
at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
and I lead the Foundation's work
on preventing childhood obesity.
Today, we're really excited to be releasing
our second annual State of Childhood Obesity report:
Prioritizing Children's Health During the Pandemic.
I'm thrilled to have our President and CEO,
Dr. Rich Besser here with me to discuss the report.
Hi, Rich.
Hey, Jamie.
It's great to see you remotely
and to have a chance to talk about the report.
What are the data showing us?
The newest data are from a survey of children
between the ages of 10 and 17.
What it shows us is that 15% of kids
in this age range have obesity.
That's a number that's remained pretty constant
or consistent over the last couple of years.
In addition, we continue to see stark
and deep disparities across race and income.
Interestingly, and not surprisingly,
a lot of the disparities
that we're seeing are also being mimicked by the kinds
of disparities that we're seeing with the COVID epidemic.
I'd love, Rich, to sort of hear from your perspective,
how you're thinking about that,
kind of the intersection,
or almost the reinforcing of one issue,
one crisis with the other.
Yeah.
What you're saying in terms of the obesity data in America
and the disparities and what we've been seeing over time,
it really resonates with what's taking place around COVID
because while obesity hits every racial
and ethnic group and every income group
it doesn't hit each group equally.
That's what we're seeing with COVID.
When you think about why that is,
there are a number of different factors.
Some have to do with exposure,
but so much has to do with opportunities
to make healthy choices.
If you live in communities
where the jobs that are available to you are jobs
that require face-to-face interaction
and are lower paying jobs,
then the likelihood is you're going to have to go to work,
if you want to put food on the table
and you're going to want to pay the rent.
So that increases the risk.
And the overlap between the groups
that are being hit hardest for COVID,
and the increased risk,
the disparities that you're laying out for obesity,
there's real parallels there.
It calls out the importance
of not just lifting up these disparities
but framing it around opportunities,
who has opportunities for healthy eating
and for healthy activities and for the types of behaviors
that will reduce the risk for obesity.
So Rich, on that,
because I think this conversation could be a bit gloomy,
but I'm definitely a person that sees the glass half full.
And so, I'd love to chat a little bit
about what gives you hope and optimism.
I know for me,
and there are some incredible stories embedded
in the new report that really lift up extraordinary people,
extraordinary leaders on the front lines doing things
that are transformative for people, for kids,
for families without actually the supportive policies
or big resources and investments.
So I think, for me, those are incredible beacons of hope.
Jamie, there are a number of things that give me hope.
I get hope from the humanitarian outpouring
that we've seen during COVID,
in response to hunger, people stepping up,
and providing more support for food banks
and other ways of getting food out to people.
That's terrific.
What I want to see though is, longer term,
the support for the policies that will,
if put in place, will mean that in the next crisis,
or every day for so many Americans,
we won't need some many food banks
because we will have jobs that pay a living wage
so people can buy healthy food,
and we will break down the barriers
that keep our communities so segregated
that prevent people from having opportunity.
I think that we are at a moment in our history
where because of this crisis,
because of the pandemic of coronavirus,
the devastation from this economic downturn
and the spreading and rising and inspirational movement
for racial justice, that we're at a point in our history
where we could see policy changes
that truly change the nature of our communities
and make our communities really communities of opportunity
and not communities that lead to the health consequences
that we're talking about today.
Rich, I love that idea,
the notion of communities of opportunity,
and maybe I'll just close by saying
that I think our Foundation's commitment
to preventing childhood obesity is really a commitment
to ensuring that every child in this country,
every family has a fair and just opportunity
to live the best, healthiest life possible.
I remain incredibly hopeful.
I'm thrilled that you took some time out today
to chat with me about the forthcoming report.
Well said, Jamie.
Thanks for sharing all that you're doing
around childhood obesity and around this report.
I hope you are well and stay well.
Great talking to you.
You too.
Thanks, Rich.