Dear Friends,  

Welcome to the Voices for Healthy Kids Newsletter! I am excited to launch a new way for us to share information from the Voices for Healthy Kids team, allies and grantees. This newsletter is a way to connect us, share successes (and challenges) and resources to help us drive change, adapt and focus our energy on making each day healthier for all children. 

The fall is usually a time of back-to-school and people returning from summer breaks ready to refocus and get back into a routine. This fall is unlike any other. As I sat down to write this letter, I realized I could focus on the uncertainty we face, or I could focus on what I hold true to keep me steady during uncertain times. I chose the latter. Here are the certainties I hold onto every day in my home and work life:   

• Most people are decent and good. 

• Time in nature is healing for the soul. 

• Love and grace are free to give – and giving tends to lead to a ripple effect of good.  

• The pleas of young people who call out injustice should not only be heard, those in power must also act on them.  

• Racial equity is about relationships to power - yours, mine and our organizations’ and institutions’.   

• Now is the time for us to stand up for what we believe is right. 

• Every child in every community should have access to safe places to play, affordable healthy foods and beverages and enough nutrition to feed their growing bodies and brains.  

• Change happens; let’s be leaders of it.  

The Voices for Healthy Kids community, which includes all of you, is poised to lead the change our nation needs so that all children can live long, healthy, successful lives; of that I am certain.  

I look forward to continuing to dismantle the health inequities that negatively impact children and families with each and every one of you. 

Lori Fresina
Executive Director