At first blush, it seems like a surprising recommendation in this era of tight public budgets: How could anyone – even advocates at the North Carolina Alliance for Health – recommend eliminating the sale of revenue producing junk food from our public schools, much less recommend investing additional funds in our school lunch program? Simple: it’s because the cost of doing nothing will cost billions of dollars more. [Continue Reading...]

Surprisingly, January 2, 2010, was not the end of the world as we know it. North Carolina’s new smoke-free restaurant and bar law went into effect that day and from all reports, North Carolinians are leading healthier lives and commerce in bars and restaurants has not ground to a screeching halt. In fact, some establishments report that business is up since the implementation of the law. [Continue Reading...]