Harkin Honored by Harvard School of Public Health for Leadership on Prevention and Wellness

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) was honored today by the Harvard School of Public Health for his leadership in developing policies that support and promote good nutrition, healthier lifestyles and disease prevention.  Harkin was named the 2010 Healthy Cup Award winner at a lecture sponsored by the School’s Nutrition Round Table entitled “From Menu Labeling to School Nutrition: How Government Programs Encourage Healthier Living.”  Harkin chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. 

“The investments we make in prevention and wellness today have proven results in the future: they bend the cost curve on health spending; keep our kids eating healthy and exercising more and rein in rising incidents of chronic disease,” said Harkin.  “It was an honor to be recognized by the nation’s pre-eminent public health school for a concept first advanced over a decade ago that has truly changed the way we live in America.”

At the event, Julio Frenk, Dean of the Faculty, presented Senator Harkin with the award citing the major impact Harkin has had on the well being of our society over the last decade.  He specifically noted Senator Harkin’s efforts in health reform to provide an historic investment in prevention and wellness and his leadership in reducing childhood obesity and increasing women’s health.

Every two years, the Nutrition Round Table honors an individual or group that has made significant contributions to public health and nutrition through acts of goodwill, charity, leadership, innovation, policy change, or the vigorous promotion of a healthy lifestyle with the Healthy Cup Award.  The first recipient of the award, in 2006, was Lee Iacocca, one of America’s most respected business leaders.   In 2008, Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the “father of aerobics,” was honored for his dedication to understanding the scientific link between exercise and good health.

The Harvard School of Public Health’s Nutrition Round Table works to help bridge the gap between scientific advances and sustainable changes in food policy, practices, and products, with a focus on obesity, healthy lifestyles, global nutrition and chronic disease.  Its volunteer members—business leaders, restaurateurs, health educators, health care providers, innovators, writers, chefs, food critics, food and ingredient producers, doctors, philanthropists and concerned citizens—are committed to supporting nutrition research, and to moving findings into practice.

A copy of Harkin’s remarks at the lecture can be found here.

A photo from the event can be found here.