We are extremely pleased and grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Hogan/American Savings Bank Entrepreneurial program. To be given the first prize among 56 different entries was truly amazing.
This exercise provided us with the discipline to do a legitimate business plan, not just one that is in our heads and in notes here and there. And it has provided us with the opportunity to share ideas and make contacts which are going to be valuable as we move forward with Fun 5 and Operation Smoothie.
When I introduced our subject to the review committee, I was concerned that we all would not understand the need for something like Operation Smoothie. I mentioned that a Harvard University study reported recently that the social, economic and health gains we have realized as a nation from the anti-smoking campaign of the last two decades is being totally offset by the growing obesity epidemic. I said that if present trends continue, today’s children will be the first generation in our nation’s history who will not live longer than their parents.
Why? A recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report, out in mid April, explains it simply – “the relationship between obesity and chronic disease is more profound than the connection between smoking and illness.” It means that in terms of the affect on our health, obesity is actually worse than smoking.
Lots of other information is now coming out about the social and economic costs of obesity, thanks in part to our very eloquent and caring first lady, Michelle Obama. In the Robert Wood Johnson report, it notes that Peter Orszag, from the Office of Management and Budget, tallied up for Mrs. Obama the financial costs of obesity-related health care in the US – he put the number at about $150 billion a year. That’s just the health care costs; it says nothing about lost productivity, human suffering, lost educational initiative, or other social costs.
Who pays this $150 billion a year – the government? Corporations? Health Insurance companies? No, we do, all of us – through our taxes, the products we buy from business, the health insurance premiums we pay, the co-payments we make for health care, etc. Government does not pay one cent of it. Corporations do not pay one cent of it. Health Insurance companies do not pay one cent of it. Because in the end, they all get their money from us, the consumers.
So our task, from a health point of view, a social point of view, and an economic point of view, is to teach everyone that they have to be more responsible for their own health. And we have to start with our keiki. Operation Smoothie is an effort to do just that – not from a negative point of view but from a positive point of view. Healthy eating is not only good for you, it taste’s good, it’s easy and it’s habit forming. Operation Smoothie is all about blending healthy habits – it’s all that it’s snacked up to be.
A special thank you to the Hogan Foundation, and to American Savings Bank and Chaminade University , for organizing and funding the entrepreneurial program aimed at non-profit organizations. We are honored to be a part of it. And a very special thanks to HMSA, the creator and primary sponsor of Fun 5.
Mark Zeug
President
Aloha State Games/Senior Olympics
Phone: (800) 581-7491, Ext. 10
Email: zeug@hawaii.rr.com
View article in Honolulu Advertiser here.
Or for more information on the program itself: Hogan/American Savings Bank Entrepenurial Program |
