2022 will culminate in a special anniversary for the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC). In his message for the new year, CLOCC Executive Director Adam Becker, PhD, MPH, reflects on our collective challenges of operating amongst the Covid-19 pandemic, honors the perseverance and successes of CLOCC and our partner organizations in 2021, and hints at some of the exciting changes and celebrations in store for this year.

Via the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC): The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) is currently circulating an organizational sign-on letter to Congress requesting that school meal riders are kept out of the final FY2022 Agriculture and Rural Development Appropriations Bill. The letter opposes the following riders specifically:

While schools currently can waive from the nutrition standards due to COVID-19, these riders are inconsistent with the law that requires the nutrition standards be based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and would halt overall progress toward healthier meals.

Join WTS on Wednesday, January 26th at Noon CST for a virtual luncheon event discussing the role advocacy groups play in moving transportation forward. Panelists will hail from The Active Transportation Alliance, The Center for Neighborhood Technology, Equiticity and The Metropolitan Planning Council. Heidy Persaud, Audrey Wennink, Olatunji Oboi Reed and Melody Geraci (she/her) will discuss their respective organizations as well as participate in a panel discussion. Themes of the panel discussion will include racial equity, mobility justice, and the role transportation plays in the healing process.

Under the general direction of the Deputy Executive Director, the Director of Planning and Technical Assistance’s key responsibilities are to manage Active Transportation Alliance’s planning and planningrelated services in the greater Chicagoland region. The director provides and manages in-house planning and design projects for staff and stakeholders in support of pedestrian, bicycle and transit advocacy and program initiatives; conducts policy and design research and analysis for projects and legislative campaigns; provides technical assistance to local communities; and maintains a high degree of expertise on current best practices in active transportation policy, design and process. The director also manages staff, active contracts and technical assistance projects.

Healthy Schools Campaign is looking for a National Program Manager to support HSC’s work to integrate health and equity into school policy and practice. This position will support a national school health services learning collaborative and various cross-sector policy initiatives that address the critical needs of students, particularly BIPOC students.

Vice President of Programs: Reporting to the President, and supported by a team of 5 direct reports and a total team of nearly 30, you will lead the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI’s) efforts in national, state, and local policy and advocacy; legislative and regulatory affairs; and, possibly, litigation. With a focus and strong commitment to health equity, you will advance our role as America’s most vigilant advocate for practical, science-based policies in nutrition, food safety, and health.

Senior Policy Associate, Healthy Food Access: The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the nation’s leading, independent authority on food and nutrition, seeks a Senior Policy Associate with expertise at the intersection of hunger, nutrition, and health equity to join its Healthy Food Access team. This team works to strengthen the public health impacts of the U.S. food safety net, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the charitable food system (the network of food banks, food pantries, and other meal programs).

Policy Fellow, Mark & Sushma Palmer Public Health Advocacy Fellowship: The Mark & Sushma Palmer Public Health Advocacy Fellowship provides a two-year, full-time position to an early career public health professional to help them develop valuable advocacy and research skills while promoting nutrition, public health and citizen advocacy.

Policy Associate, Healthy Retail: The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the nation’s leading, independent authority on food and nutrition, seeks a Policy Associate to advocate for state and local policies to improve healthy food access through the food retail environment. This work will engage and support historically under-resourced communities that experience health disparities.

Connect with CLOCC's network of nearly 3,000 childhood obesity prevention advocates by listing your organization's upcoming events or current job openings on the Consortium's website. Upon submission, postings will be approved by CLOCC staff; events and careers applicable to the CLOCC network may also be featured in this newsletter. If you have questions or are not able to access the webpage, contact info@clocc.net. CLOCC will not publish for-profit services or events, or products for sale.

For questions related to testing criteria and general information about COVID-19 and children, please contact the COVID-19 Call Center at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital at 312.227.5300. The Call Center is staffed by Lurie Children’s nurses and is available Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM CT, and Saturday, 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM CT.

The COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for individuals ages 5-11. While this is welcome news to many CLOCC partners, their families, and the families they serve, parents and children may also experience appropriate anxiety regarding the vaccine. Some children also have sensory needs that can make receiving the vaccine difficult. Experts at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital have published some simple tips to help make a child’s COVID-19 vaccine uptake as easy as possible.

The New York Life Foundation's Aim High Grant Competition is seeking applications from afterschool, summer, or expanded learning programs serving middle-school youth. In total, $1.8 million in grants will be awarded to programs all across the country. This is the sixth year of the Foundation’s Aim High grant competition, bringing the total amount awarded to $7.95 million. A total of 40 grant awards will be made nationwide.

Applications are due February 1, 2022 at 5 p.m. ET. Learn more about the grant application, view the RFP, and submit your application. Reach out to the Afterschool Alliance at aimhigh@afterschoolalliance.org with questions.

The Illinois Stewardship Alliance’s Resilience Fund helps Illinois local food producers invest in critical infrastructure to scale and adapt their businesses to improve the capacity and resiliency of the local food system. Last year, the Resilience Fund awarded 27 local farms a total of $225,000 in grants. In all, 80 local food farmers applied for over $1 million in support, indicating an ongoing and unmet need for local food infrastructure development.

In the coming months, $175,000 will be awarded to local food producers for investment in critical infrastructure to increase the capacity and resiliency of our local food system. Farms and farm collaborations will have the opportunity to apply for grants of up to $10,000. The Resilience Fund application is now open. The deadline for applications is February 15, 2022. Decisions are anticipated by April 1, 2022. 

Evidence for Action has released a new open and rolling call for Innovative Research to Advance Racial Equity. Through this CFP they seek to fund researchers, practitioners, community leaders, advocates, policymakers, and/or other stakeholders to investigate the impacts of various social interventions on health and racial equity outcomes. They are interested in projects that develop and disseminate evidence about what works to advance racial equity and improve health and well-being outcomes for people and communities of color.