Oh look more meetings!

I loved every meeting I've attended, whether it was at MAG, the League, or the Chamber of Commerce, but today's meeting almost put me to sleep. Sorry John Wayne. This meeting was at the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce with the Tax and Budget Committee. It was the first meeting of the season and they were meeting to edit their guidelines and vision. JW explained to me that this was a room full of lawyers and lobbyists that make our laws, so every word and sentence had to make perfect sense and not be redundant. The whole document explaining their mission, goals, vision, and guidelines took a couple hours to edit. What seemed like a good sentence to me was not good enough for the room full of committee members. The meeting ended at 3 and there was still more edits to be made so they saved them for the next meeting.

Dressing up for a Conference Call

Following my research on Phoenix being a healthy city and menu labeling, the city was invited to be a part of the Let's Move Campaign committee. The committee involves other cities, the First Lady and her staff, the White House's head chef, and a few other organizations. My superiors thought I would be helpful in attending the conference call because of the research I did and could give my opinions. I was able to listen in along with the Chief of Staff for a Council Member. Even though it was a conference call, I dressed up for the meeting because of who would be present. I value what was discussed because various organizations are working together to lower obesity rates in America by starting with children. If the children learn what is good and bad eating then it is possible to lower the nation's obesity rates.

The website for Let's Move:
http://www.letsmove.gov

Smart Choices

Following the research I did for Phoenix and the healthy cities rankings, I was asked to do research on cities implementing menu labeling and write an executive summary. I liked the work asked of me because it helps Phoenix become a better city for future generations. While on vacation in California I noticed the menus and how it had calories for every item and I thought this was an innovative way to help citizens order consciously. I like the idea of menu labeling because it enticed me to order healthier items.

This is the executive summary that I wrote:

Menu Labeling Executive Summary

Existing Laws Regarding Menu Labeling

• City
• New York City, Nashville, and Philadelphia have passed menu labeling laws.
• In July 2008, New York City became the first U.S. city to ban restaurants from using artificial trans fat, and required calorie counts on menus.
• Philadelphia passed the nation’s strongest menu labeling law, requiring chain restaurants with more than 15 restaurants to disclose nutritional information.
• County
• King County, WA (Seattle), Multnomah County, OR (Portland), Ulster County, NY, Westchester County, NY, and Suffolk County, NY, are the five counties to pass similar laws.
• King County, Washington requires chain restaurants with more than 15 national locations and $1 million in annual sales to display calorie, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, and carbohydrate information.
• 18 months after the King County law started, the calorie content in foods dropped. It fell by an average of 7% at sit-down restaurants, while the declines were smaller at fast food establishments.
• Researchers believe the changes are due to smaller portion sizes, and restaurants substituting in lower calorie ingredients.
• State
• California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Oregon are the four states to pass menu labeling laws statewide.
• In June 2009, Oregon’s governor signed HB 2726 becoming the third state to require chain restaurants with 15 or more locations to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.
• Federal
• Section 4205 of the Affordable Care Act requires FDA to create menu-labeling regulations that affect all restaurant chains with 20 or more U.S. locations.

The Issue with Menu Labeling

            Studies were conducted to evaluate healthier eating choices when adding nutritional information to menus; research is inconclusive regarding the efficacy of menu labeling.

The Studies

• Pediatrics journal (Jan. 2010) reported that mothers made better choices for their children when provided with menus showing calorie information, but did not make the same decisions for themselves.
• Parents ordered an average of 102 fewer calories for their children than a control group not given calorie information.
• Stanford University studied customer habits at some Starbucks locations in New York City from January 2008 to February 2009 (straddling the period when the city’s menu labeling laws went into effect).
• After adding menu labeling, average calories per transaction decreased 6%, almost all of it related to food not beverages.
• Food calories per transaction decreased 14%.
• Of the calorie decrease, 75% came from buying fewer items and 25% from choosing lower-calorie items.
• Health Affairs journal surveyed 1,156 adults eating at fast-food restaurants in low-income, minority New York City neighborhoods.
• About half of the people noticed the calorie labeling, and of those, almost 28% said the information influenced their ordering.
• However, when researchers examined receipts, they detected no difference in calories compared with people surveyed in an area of New Jersey where the law did not apply and nutritional information was not available.
• American Journal of Public Health studied 303 people eating dinner, where they were randomly assigned to choose from a menu that had no calorie information, one that had calories, or one that had calories plus prominently displayed information on the recommended daily calorie intake for an average adult.
• The two groups with calorie information ordered 14% fewer calories overall at dinner than those without it.
• The group supplied with just the calorie information that were careful during dinner, consumed more calories later in the evening and ended up eating just as much as the no-calorie information group.
• Those who had a menu with the daily recommended calorie intake ate an average of 250 fewer calories during and after dinner.

Other Issues

• Restaurant foods are typically high in calorie content.
• The recommended calorie intake for an adult is 2,000 calories daily, and huge restaurant portions cause overeating leading to obesity.
• From studies conducted, it seems there is a lack of change to healthier eating when adding nutritional information to menus.
• Researchers believe menu labeling does not work but over time will potentially be effective. When it does become effective, the city might need to be prepared for decreased revenues.
• There is widespread confusion among consumers about how much they should consume in a day. How many calories it takes to maintain a healthy weight, is the question to be considered when implementing menu labeling.

The lbs. I'm gaining just walking in the door

It seems that every week there's a retirement celebration, birthday, someone bringing bagels and donuts, or "I just wanted to bake something." What goes along with all these celebrations are sweets. For someone who is training for a half marathon it was difficult to say no and keep up with the healthy eating. There are a few co-workers who showed extreme self-control and did not eat any desserts because of their dieting. The short breaks were always welcomed since we were working and looking forward to it. This was one way I was able to meet others who worked in different departments.

Cover Letters

Today I attended a session on creating the perfect cover letter. Since I'll soon be applying to internships for next summer, I need to make sure my cover letters are up to par with everyone else. I always find writing cover letters to the most difficult over interviewing and writing resumes. Cover letters are pretty much the only way to allow an employer to get to know you as a person and qualified candidate. The speaker gave good examples of cover letters and what not to put in them. I'm grateful that I attended this session since I wrote one today and it went fairly well. Let's hope I receive an interview!

The future of our light rail

During my internship I was able to attend several MAG meetings. The one that I found most interesting was the future of our transportation system specifically with the light rail. At this meeting, all the City Managers from Maricopa County were present and heard the report of where the future routes of light rail should go and what system we should use. The review of the report was very technical so I only understood about half of what was being discussed. Valley METRO and METRO Light Rail I believe works together to operate the light rail. I was impressed at how well all the cities work to make the light rail a success. They also work with other organizations like ASU. The light rail will hopefully extend to the ASU west campus in the next few years, which is impressive to know that someday all the campuses could be connected.

A request from above

This week Tom asked me to do some research for Jerome Miller, one of Phoenix's Deputy City Managers. Jerome is busy with overseeing several departments so I worked mainly with Brandi, his assistant, to complete the tasks assigned to me. At first this request did not seem like much fun but as time moved forward it become a project that I've become very proud of. This project and the following one both became resume builders that I can use in future internships or career. The first part of the project was to research the healthiest cities in America and where Phoenix falls into the ranks. Following my research I was asked to write an executive summary of my findings so I could present it to Council Member Valenzuela. This is what I wrote:

Briefing Council Member Valenzuela

Healthy City Rankings Review

The Issue

A literature review of electronic resources shows that Phoenix generally ranks mid-pack in terms of the “healthiest” largest city in the U.S.

AFI / The Measures

The American Fitness Index (AFI) is an initiative of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) that aims to assess the overall health and fitness of U.S. metropolitan cities. Scores are assigned by comparing various indicators to the national average and rewarding or penalizing the cities as appropriate. The scoring falls into two categories: 1) personal health indicators and 2) community and environmental indicators. The AFI report reflects a city’s preventive health behaviors, levels of disease conditions, health care access, and community resources and polices that support physical activity. The indicators that make the difference between a healthy, fitness-friendly city and one that ranks poorly is banning smoking in public places, adding parks, walking trails and bike trails, and prioritizing healthy habits. Many publications use various studies and reports, but the AFI is the most consistent report used. Forbes, NBC, Huffington Post, and other resources cite to the AFI where Phoenix ranks near the middle of all metro cities studied.

Another study is the Centrum Healthiest Cities Study which issued a “health report card” of U.S. cities. The 50 largest metro cities were tested against each other in five categories where Phoenix ranked 21st. Also, the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index is another study to measure a city’s rank of happiness and health. The poll has surveyed more than 300,000 Americans and questions 1,000 people on a daily basis. The survey includes questions about jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state of mind, and communities. Phoenix ranks 69^th out of 190.

Phoenix

The AFI ranks Phoenix 32^nd among the 50 largest metro areas. Phoenix has the highest percentage of residents with asthma at 11.9%. Way below the average of 93.2, Phoenix only provides 71.0 health care providers per 100,000 residents. According to the AFI, 82.6% of Phoenix’s population reported participating in a physical activity in the last 30 days. With a decent amount of parkland, Phoenix fails in the number of recreational facilities provided leading to a 44^th ranking in community/environmental indicators.

Areas where Phoenix excels include: lower death rate for cardiovascular disease, lower death rate for diabetes, higher percentage of city land area as parkland, and more acres of parkland per capita.

Improvement priority areas for Phoenix are: higher percent with asthma, higher percent with angina or coronary heart disease, fewer farmers’ markets per capita, lower percent using public transportation to work, lower percent bicycling or walking to work, fewer ball diamonds per capita, fewer dog parks per capita, fewer playgrounds per capita, fewer golf courses per capita, fewer parks per capita, fewer recreation centers per capita, fewer pools per capita, fewer tennis courts per capita, lower park-related expenditures per capita, lower number of primary health care providers per capita.