Healthy Children, Healthy Future

When it comes to nutrition, this country faces a crisis. The United States leads the world in all the wrong ways – adult & childhood obesity, adult & childhood diabetes, and heart disease, just to name a few.

Here in Rockland, things aren't much better. Both our adult and childhood obesity rates exceed the state average. More than 25,000 children depend on food stamps for the most basic nutrition. And with exploding government deficits, nutrition programs and food pantries are seeing their funding slashed.

Over the past few weeks, I've been doing all I can to learn about this critical issue. From local neighborhood farmers markets, to touring the very food pantries that are struggling with reduced funding, I've learned a great deal. While some candidates may say there's nothing a County Executive can do, something must be done.

As County Executive, I will work with non-profits and look to establish community gardens, growing fresh produce for distribution to the county's food pantries, providing healthy and nutritious fruits and vegetables to those most in need. Coordinating directly with our school districts, I will look to bring the farm into the classroom and helping students learn how agriculture affects their daily lives. Farm to School program grants are available, providing schools with fresh local produce. Also, Future Farmers of America (FFA) has a significant presence in New York, yet none of Rockland's school districts has a FFA chapter. Farm programs aren't just for rural communities – the largest FFA chapter in the country is in New York City.  Nutrition and education need to go hand in hand – healthy bodies beget healthy minds.

For the children that are on food stamps today, it is incumbent on us to ensure a better tomorrow. By ending the status quo and cutting millions of dollars of waste in the county budget, we can maintain funding for the non-profits that provide critical services like food pantries. By fighting for quality education for all communities, we can ensure after-school sports programs, which have been proven to improve academic performance, remain intact.

When I am County Executive, there's much we can do together. Don't let the status quo politicians tell you otherwise.