The federal government can help by making school lunches more nutritious, making sure physical activity is a part of every day school schedule (recess or gym class), and educating children and adults in care of children. In Florida, public schools have seriously devalued recess and opted to give more class instruction to the exclusion of recess in elementary schools. This was also a way to reduce spending on education since without recess, the school day could be made shorter and the teachers would only need to be paid for a minimum number of hours per day. Most private schools at the elementary level here in Florida still include recess, and copious amounts of it, proving again that if you have more money and can afford private school education, at school your child will be treated in a way that ensures or promotes better fitness. On this subject, I would love to see a study on how many kids were diagnosed with ADHD when recess was part of the school day vs. now that it has been removed from elementary curriculum. No wonder the kids can't focus when asked to do so for four or five hours straight with no recess. The school district opts to advise parents to medicate kids who can't do it--mostly boys who are high energy and need to burn it off in order to function in the classroom. One other comment posted here made mention of an interesting factor--how busy are the parents working to provide a household for the children? In today's economic downturn, parents are more stressed than ever to simply put a roof over their kids heads and give them food (any kind) before collapsing for two or three hours sleep and starting another day. Little or no time is spent shopping for food and preparing meals in the kitchen. Fast food or convenient supermarket foods (processed packaged foods) are a daily staple. Little or no time is spent playing outside in the yard or a park WITH the kids--every waking minute is spent earning a living. So the federal government can help by providing an economic atmosphere where parents can afford to work less and spend more time with the kids.