The Blog: Ministry, Music, Media
Mom and Dad: Debunking Food Myths is Faithful posted on April 16, 2010
Seeking truth! Sounds faithful, right? We go to a health educator to help us with some myths about food and how to feed the children. I found this simple slide show that might help make friends with some food you think/thought were not first choice for the grocery cart, and hence, lunch bag or dinner table. 
As we journey faithfully together in the how to faithfully feed the children that which honors them and their bodies, I thought this might be interesting to share with you. Hope it help.
Using media to share helpful information!
blessings for the common good,
Pastor Robin
There are 10 comments “Mom and Dad: Debunking Food Myths is Faithful” was posted by Pastor Robin
Pianos and Art Bring Creative Hope To The Streets posted on April 14, 2010
Check this out - pianos in London, painted, put in the streets to share beauty with everybody. They call it, Play Me, I’m Yours. Painted pianos that everybody can play as they walk by. wow. Share your thoughts - how can we keep sharing music and hope?
On Common Good Radio we play music for hope and love everyday - thanks for listening!
blessings for the common good,
Pastor Robin
There are 8 comments “Pianos and Art Bring Creative Hope To The Streets” was posted by Pastor Robin
Lots of Ways to Avoid Obesity for Your Family posted on April 8, 2010
There are lots of researchers with lots of information about childhood obesity. I wonder how much regular folks like you and me read and understand what is being researched and discussed?
I did some looking around and found some articles that might be of interest to you. This one is not about advertising to children during children’s programming, but about childhood habits of eating. For those of us who like theory behind practice, this article might just tickle the fancy. It is called, The Trust Model, a different feeding paradigm for managing childhood obesity.
What I liked about what I read is this: the parent (or caregiver) decides when, where and basically the what of food in the lives of the children, and the children learn to self-regulate with choices, and the adults honor the child’s choices. The child learns to make choices that nurture and nutritionally feed themselves (with supervision) and are not over or under-regulated.
It might look something like: Dinner on the table at 6PM, everyone is expected to be there. 
The food choices are something protein, something vegetable, something carbohydrate. You might offer several vegetables and water or milk for beveridge. What you don’t do, is insist on a serving of chicken, potato and carrots, each. You let the child self-regulate within the meal. And over time, carrots and rolls might have salad and chicken added on. Or, potato and chicken might see carrots on the plate. The point is, there is a point at which we trust children to make good choices (within the good choices you have put before them, because they have learned to make good choices. The Trust Model of feeding! Who knew?
Let us know your thoughts if you look over this article?
More support for the idea of the family dinner with this article from Time (the above picture comes from this article).
Songs on Common Good Radio about trust: So Glad I’m Here, Sweet Honey in the Rock, I Love You, Robin Blair, I WIll Be Your Friend, Amy Grant and Love Makes a Friend Be A Friend Like You, Sandi Patty. Trust is a beautiful and spiritual thing.
with blessings for the common good,
Pastor Robin
There are 4 comments “Lots of Ways to Avoid Obesity for Your Family” was posted by Pastor Robin
Advertising to Children: Facts posted on April 7, 2010
Let’s continue to use media to raise awareness and help us all make informed decisions as consumers. Here is a brief installment of some media and advertising history you might not be aware of:
Advertising and food, kids and media programming have gone together for quite some time. Advertising pays the bills for media to program - or rather, media makes programming to create minutes for advertisers to sell products. This is all understandable. The question is what is appropriate to advertise to children during children’s programming? Does it matter?
In the 1990’s, I was hosting and producing the Radio AAhs mid-morning program for children (and parents), Alphabet Soup, broadcast across the country. During those years, I remember interviewing Peggy Charren who spoke as a parent outraged as she observed the disregard that advertisers and television networks had for children’s tender sensibilities, and exploited them to sell goods. Food was tops among the products advertised during children’s television programming. Ms. Charren helped to organize an advocacy effort that resulted in some legislation:
“In 1990, The Children’s Television Act was passed and remains in effect today. Interpreted and enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it applies to the networks, local broadcasters and cable operators. The bill stipulates that for:
Ages 12 and under: The amount of advertising aired during children’s programming should be limited to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays—still more than for adult prime time;
Ages 16 and under: The FCC is required to consider the amount of educational programming that a broadcaster presents in approving license renewals and examine the role of “program-length commercials.” Read the rest of the article.
More next time.
blessings for the common good,
Pastor Robin
There are 6 comments “Advertising to Children: Facts” was posted by Pastor Robin
Childhood Obesity and Faith posted on April 3, 2010
“This generation of children may be the first generation not to live as long as their parents do,” says Researcher Dr. Amy Porter is a pediatrician who leads the Pediatric Weight Management Iniative for Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Region. 
Is this as frightening to hear to you as it is to me? There are more questions than anything else offered in this blog entry.
In my ministry and service to God’s people, I think about kids and faith a great deal with the work for this website as part of an offering to find blessings through the common good to which we all contribute. Sometimes my mind wanders around in the abstract world of faith: who are all God’s children, what stories in scripture about children and even Jesus as a baby, Buddha as a baby, Mohammed as a child, speak to me? I wonder what life was like for all these people and how did the sacred reveal itself to them, what were their mothers like and how did their fathers express love and hope? I find myself posing questions that only imaginative wondering can answer. Then I hear or read the national or global news, and get jolted back into reality.
How do obese children in California (above video link) have anything to do with me in my present reality? What is our part in the well being of God’s people? Can I live with, them and us? Or, it is all, us? What is the family of God? What is my role? I am getting the keen sense, it is all, us, as we all play a part in the well being of others.
A recent study from the labs of Kaiser Permanente found that in southern California over 45K children are morbidly obese (of the 700K they researched). Read the article and watch a 2 minute video, here.
Prayerfully and without judgement, how can people of faith help one another in this crisis? Now that we are becoming more and more aware that obesity, especially childhood obesity, is a real health issue, can media be a tool of communication and loving to bring awareness to families in the hope that there might be fewer Doritos and more celery sticks? Cupcakes are a treat, not breakfast, and whole grains are gift - not wierd and funny looking?
Is it really hard to do because Doritos and Hostess cakes pay for so much advertising during s media offerings where children are watching? 
What is the spiritual message of these ads?
Maybe as a first step, the spiritual and faith component can be as simple as: how much is my share (of the world’s food supply), today? And, how can I help others have their share?
Rather than feeling like we shoulder the up-hill boulder all alone, let’s converse together and each bring a part of faithful brilliance and healing. Will you share what you do in your household regarding childhood nutrition and why it is important to you?
On Common Good Radio, listen for songs about sharing: This Land Is Your Land, Pete Seeger, What Can I Give Away Today, Sherri Hoffman and Count Your Blessings, Mimi Bessette for centering on having enough and what meets our needs so that we are not greedy in taking more than our share, as an idea for starting the conversation in your family.
blessings for the common good,
Pastor Robin
