SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani (D- Livingston) successfully passed her bill to improve coordination of statewide obesity prevention out the Assembly Health Committee this week. 

“Childhood obesity and California’s budget are both crises in this state,” said Assemblymember Galgiani.  “This bill attacks both of these problems by coordinating efforts to combat childhood obesity under the lead of the California Department of Public Health that will now be responsible for implementation of mass media campaigns.” 

Considerable state and federal resources are now spent on statewide media and public education campaigns that focus on the prevention of childhood obesity, mostly targeting low- income populations.  However, these campaigns are not coordinated with each other, resulting in a barrage of messages urging families to make changes to prevent childhood obesity, but with little support for improving access and affordability for healthy foods and promoting physical activity. 

An example of this is the recent “Champions for Change” and the “First Five” mass media campaigns that target low-income families with young children. Both campaigns were launched without any substantive coordination of planning, messaging, collateral materials, or follow up with the local health programs, which serve the same population in almost every California community.

Speaking to the Assembly Health Committee, Galgiani explained, “If the local programs had been informed in advance, they could have built these messages and materials into their counseling, classes, and general promotional campaigns across the state.  Instead this was a missed opportunity to save precious tax payer dollars.

“Under the supervision of the existing Coordinating Office for Obesity Prevention, media campaigns using state resources will avoid duplication and provide the most seamless and effective transmission of childhood obesity prevention information.”

By coordinating efforts under the California Department of Public Health, AB 2474 becomes one of several pieces of cost-saving legislation introduced by Assemblymember Galgiani during this legislative season to help relieve the pressure of the state’s large budget deficit.