"You have to think carefully about the approach when you are trying to bring nutrition to a community."
Mary O'Dowd
New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner
"Many cities struggle with life-threatening issues like gun violence. The reality is: is number one killer of people in my city is obesity related illnesses."
Mayor Cory Booker
Mayor of Newark, New Jersey
"Many parents choose safety over nutrition and exercise. They can't let their kids walk the streets and there is no safe place to play."
Tammy Pacheco
Mother of 13 year old with diabetes
"Supermarkets are not close to where we live so it's hard for us to eat healthy and teach our kids the way you should eat."
Alicia Rivera
Mother of three children—her family is living with three generations of diabetes.
"When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I thought it was going to be the end of my life. I didn't think I could get it as such a young age."
Rebecca Rivera
17-year-old Camden resident
"Its not just as simple as putting food on a plate, we need to be addressing the quality of the food on that plate and ensuring that people have consistent access to healthy and nutritious foods."
Lisanne Finston
Executive Director, Elijah's Promise Soup Kitchen, New Brunswick New Jersey
"There's no magic bullet, there's no fad diet that's going to get us there, there's no solution waiting for us around the corner. We need to make fundamental shifts in how we address food issues in this country."
Dwayne Proctor
Senior Program Officer
Director, Childhood Obesity Program Management Team Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
"In order to buy groceries I have to catch a bus and a taxi and then catch another cab back home and it costs forty-five dollars just in transportation."
Tanya Pacheco
Camden resident, mother of 4
"We hear many stories about children not knowing that you can pull an apple off a tree. Or you can pull a carrot out of the ground."
Jasmine Ratliff-Hall
Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
"It's extremely important to me that the work I do, has an impact on the policies that will turn around and affect the health of children and adults."
Dan Hoffman
Professor of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University
"New Jersey has the highest incidence of obesity for children ages 3-5. We must start thinking of where our food comes from and who in our state has access to fresh fruits and vegetables."
Peter Gillies
Director, New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health
"This is a high risk pregnancy. I have high blood pressure and diabetes."
Cristiane dos Santos
expectant mother of 5, Brazil
Yago Santos-Souza
8-year-old Brazilian boy diagnosed with obesity
"We have to work extra hard to get money for food cards."
Margarete da Silva
Mother of 2, Brazil
"Many of these families are at risk for diabetes. These children are here from 7 am to 6 at night. There is a trust that we will do what is right for these children"
Mae Strong
Director of the Mae Strong Child Development Center
"I care an awful lot about childhood obesity. It affects the health of children, it affects the psychology of children so this really matters."
Thomas Farley
New York City Health Commissioner
Michael Moss
Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist, The New York Times
Naa Oyo A. Kwate
Associate Professor of Human Ecology and Africana Studies, Rutgers
Rob Scott
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers
Andy Egan
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers
"One of the things that makes this complicated is that we have become very diverse communities and cultures."
Abena Busia
Professor, Women and Gender Studies, Rutgers
"There's just a plethora of research that needs to be done, with any kind of researcher there is who touches human lives."
Debra Palmer
Director, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education
"We actually see that the schools that have kept physical education in the curriculum, perform better on standardized tests. Brain activity is better in these kids that undergo physical activity."
Shawn Arent
Associate Professor of Exercise Science, Rutgers University
Darrin Anderson
Associate Executive Director New Jersey YMCA