Champions for Healthy Kids 2011
Champions for Healthy Kids is a comprehensive initiative sponsored by the General Mills Foundation to encourage youth in communities across the country to improve their nutrition and physical fitness, awarding over $20 million in grants to impact the lives of over 5 million youth since 2002.
A signature element of the initiative is the Champions for Healthy Kids national grants program, which awards $10,000 grants to 50 community organizations that develop innovative programs that strengthen the mind and body and help youth achieve a long-lasting healthy lifestyle.
General Mills sponsors these grants in partnership with the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and the President’s Council on Sports, Physical Fitness, and Nutrition.
Alabama Cooperative Extension First Years Count
Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.
The Alabama Cooperative Extension’s First Years Count program helps parents make healthy eating and physical activity part of their daily family life. The goal is to help parents strengthen their knowledge about nutrition, understand the importance of a physically active life style, and learn positive parenting techniques. Families learn how to grow and prepare foods that are healthy and tasty. The program reaches out to those living with limited finances to help find affordable ways to strengthen their healthy eating and physical activity habits. Positive parenting techniques encourage children to emulate what the parents have learned.
Cottonwood Day School Bicycle Club
Cottonwood Day School, Chinle, Ariz.
The Cottonwood Day School Bicycle Club introduces 5th- 8th graders to bicycling as a life-long fitness activity and teaches them how to make healthy food choices. Native Americans have a high risk of diabetes and obesity but students who learn how this fun cardiovascular activity along with good nutrition can improve their physical fitness, and their overall well-being, can lower the risk of diabetes and obesity.
Let's Move - Teens as Leaders of Kids (TALK Team)
YMCA of Southern Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
TALK Teams in Tucson, AZ will enlist the aid of high school teens to combat childhood obesity by focusing on nutrition as part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign. TALK Team teens will be trained to deliver health promoting activities in after school programs to teach younger children about the importance of embracing a healthy active lifestyle by moving more and eating healthy foods. Elementary students will practice healthy habits by preparing and eating healthy snacks and engaging in fun physical activities with the Let’s Move Passport Challenge.
Childhood Matters & Nuestros Ninos Radio Shows
Childhood Matters, Oakland, Calif.
Childhood Matters & Nuestros Ninos Radio Shows reach out to parents who are struggling with the stresses of raising kids in today’s pressure- packed society. The radio shows provide an interactive forum for dialogue, along with resources and tips on childhood obesity, to raise awareness and help parents make well-informed healthy choices for their children. The programs, available in Spanish and English, reach over 15,000 people in their homes, schools, workplaces, and cars via the airwaves and Internet. Over 780 shows are archived on the Childhood Matters websites and can be heard at any time from any location.
Every Child Every Day Summer Hunger Initiative
Redwood Empire Food Bank, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Redwood Empire Food Bank's Every Child, Every Day Summer Hunger Initiative provides low-income children with a nutritious meal during the summer when school is out. The program has community sites across Sonoma County. Garden-based nutrition education draws children to the summer lunch sites while providing outdoor activities connected to gardening such as planting, weeding, and the Salsa Bike, a stationary bike children pedal to work the attached blender to make fresh salsa from harvested produce. Children learn how food is grown and the value of nutrition and fun physical activity.
Santa Barbara High School Dons Net Café
Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara, Calif.
Students at Santa Barbara High School’s Dons Net Café are stepping up to promote healthy living among their classmates. The school’s Snack Shack carries only healthy products and offers special pricing to students who walk or ride their bikes to school. Students are also encouraged to use water canteens and reduce their use of plastics to help protect the environment. A Walk and Roll campaign encourages students to walk, carpool, or ride their bikes to school to increase physical fitness and reduce air pollution.
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SuperKids for SuperFoods & Fitness
Superfood Drive, Cardiff, Calif.
SuperKids for SuperFoods helps youth see that SuperFoods and SuperFitness can lead to SuperHealth. Youth of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to lead SuperFood Drives benefiting themselves, their families and communities. Schools and youth groups receive training and educational materials to help them organize, lead, and promote a SuperFoods Drive. Youth learn about the value of nutrient-dense SuperFoods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and lean protein and are rewarded for sharing tangible results and inspiring others to participate through school challenges, blogs, videos and social media.
Seven by Seven (7 X 7)
Youth Radio, Oakland, Calif.
Seven by Seven produces a seven-part youth-led video series that inspires lifestyle change in Oakland, CA area youth. The program details simple ways young people in urban areas can effectively incorporate good diets and physical activity into their daily lives. The videos focus on appropriately balanced nutrition and select yoga movements to help youth increase self-awareness, mental and physical health, and wellbeing. Youth learn how to address physical and mental and emotional conditions (e.g., stomach aches, headaches, low energy, anxiety, and depression) with foods and yoga movements identified as effective relievers.
Green Team Healthy Eating & Active Living
Groundwork Denver Incorporated, Denver, Colo.
The Groundwork Denver Green Team consists of 10 youth ages 14 to 18 who serve as ambassadors for healthy eating and active living in Denver's low-income communities. The youth have chosen to focus on biking and gardening as the solution to several important issues in their community including access to fresh food and a safe place for physical activity. Ambassadors will engage other youth and the local community in healthy eating through food and nutrition demonstrations and activities at community gardens. Youth ambassadors will also engage the community in bicycling by hosting biking events and repair workshops.
Kids Fun Fest
Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network, Inc, Denver, Colo.
Kids Fun Fest provides on-air and on-site programs in Denver geared toward the importance of good nutrition and physical activity. In a community where nearly 30 percent of children are obese, this two-month on-air series of vignettes will promote healthy eating and activity. The children's festival, held in September, will promote healthy lifestyles and intellectual curiosity where families can learn about nutrition, meet with a registered dietitian, and participate in healthy play demonstrations.
Logan Montessori Edible Garden
Capitol Hill Cluster School, Washington, D.C.
The Logan Montessori Edible Garden is transforming the urban landscape around the new Capitol Hill Cluster School into a healthy green space and outdoor classroom. The project aims to stimulate children physically, academically, and socially and to reconnect the community to local agricultural and ecological systems. The space will provide a vibrant garden for children and families to grow edible plants, harvest them, and use them to prepare healthy meals. Parents and the local community will be invited to join in community building events such as workplace volunteer days, potluck gatherings and birthday celebrations.
Healthy Tigers
YMCA of Florida's First Coast, Jacksonville, Fla.
Tiger Academy is an elementary charter school that serves a low-income inner city area with a multitude of health, educational, and economic disparities. Established by the YMCA in 2009, Tiger Academy will incorporate the Spark Healthy School model to provide pre-school to 3rd grade students with a high quality educational option, along with complimentary health and social services developed by the YMCA and community partners.
Treasure Your Health
Treasure Coast Food Bank, Inc., Fort Pierce, Fla.
The Treasure Coast Food Bank, Inc takes its Mobile Food Pantries to four free medical clinics frequented by thousands of low-income families. These pantries provide fresh, local, nutritious foods donated by area farmers. A major motivation for this project is to address rampant nutrition-related diseases in the area. Treasure Your Health adds two new components to this existing program to help low-income kids learn about nutrition and exercise through kid friendly cooking and nutrition education classes along with progressive exercise sessions designed to fight nutrition-related diseases.
RRISA's and EDIN's Love Your Body Program at Safe Places
Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, Inc, Decatur, GA
Refugee Resettlement & Immigration Services of Atlanta and the Eating Disorder Information Network provide an after school program for underserved children. This partnership provides a variety of programs including healthy snacks and physical exercise. Children will learn to identify their body’s hunger and fullness signals, distinguish between hunger and emotions, understand physical development, appreciate exercise, manage stress, and accept other’s shapes and sizes.
Healthy Kids for District 189
East Side Health District. East St. Louis, Ill.
The Healthy Kids for District 189 program is working to improve the overall health and fitness of the District’s elementary school children. Healthy Kids helps increase awareness among students, parents, faculty, and community members regarding the importance of a healthy diet and exercising regularly. The District hopes to increase student participation in the breakfast program from 55 percent to 75 percent, by June 2012. The Healthy Kids program also plans to increase students’ moderate to vigorous physical activity during P.E. class using the C.A.T.C.H. curriculum.
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Girls on the Run Program Expansion
Girls on the Run-Chicago, Inc, Chicago, Ill.
Girls on the Run-Chicago, is an after-school program that helps girls develop attitudes and behaviors that will foster physical and emotional health for a lifetime. Young women in Illinois have demonstrated lower rates of physical fitness and good nutrition habits as compared to the rest of the country. Volunteer coaches guide and mentor girls in the 3rd – 8th grades through running games and conversations that teach life skills related to healthy eating and exercise habits, healthy decision-making, leadership, teamwork, and contributing to the community. The program promotes healthy snacking and eating habits, encourages positive emotional, social, mental, spiritual and physical development, and engages girls in at least 30 minutes of physical activity twice a week for 12 weeks.
Growing Gators: Academically, Physically and Nutritionally
Garden City Elementary, Indianapolis, Ind.
Growing Gators encourages 4th – 6th grade students in Indianapolis, IN living in poverty, to exercise daily and learn about healthy eating. Nearly 75 percent of children living in poverty in this community are obese. In addition to learning about the food groups, portion sizes, and how to read food labels, students are encouraged to walk a mile each day during recess. Students also learn how to calculate BMI and take someone’s blood pressure. Fitness Nights provide families with opportunities to taste test fresh fruits and vegetables and time to play together.
Get Legit, Stay Fit
Seaman High School, Topeka, Kan.
Seaman High School students have initiated several projects to create a healthy, active community for students, staff, parents and community members. Programs include Fitness Fridays to promote a physically active lifestyle, Wellness Wednesdays where students learn about proper nutrition, monthly District Wellness Nights that encourage increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, knowledge of correct portion sizes to prevent obesity, and the importance of a nutrient-dense diet. There are nutrition awards for students who make healthy eating choices, and a health and wellness awareness campaign.
Fun 'n FITchburg Camp
Montachusett Opportunity Council, Inc., Fitchburg, Mass.
The Fun ‘n FITchburg Camp is reaching out to youth in Fitchburg, MA, a community that has the second highest BMI statewide. The Montachusett Opportunity Council is sponsoring a Fun ‘n FITchburg Camp in one of the area’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods where 83 percent of residents earn under $20,000 annually. Along with physical activity, campers will learn where food comes from by visiting local farms, community gardens, and farmers markets. Campers will learn about the food-health connection, how to make healthy eating choices, and will enjoy active play activities.
Making Healthy Choice$ Work for You
Somerville Public Schools, Somerville, Mass.
Making Healthy Choices$ Work for You is working to replace traditional school bake sales with healthier fundraising options. Students will learn alternatives for raising money for student activities like the National Honor Society, Community Service Club, and Gay/Straight Alliance. Making Healthy Choice$ Work for You educates high student leaders and their mentors about options and strategies for healthy fundraising through hands-on workshops, leadership coaching, and mini-grants to build capacity to plan and host alternative fundraisers such as healthy bake sales, fun runs and other physical activities.
Healthy Living Academy
Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, Inc., Baltimore, Md.
The Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital is sponsoring the Healthy Living Academy for at-risk youth in Baltimore. The Academy is an after-school program that reaches out to more than 300 inner city, African-American Baltimore youth. These children are at higher risk than the general pediatric population to become overweight or obese. In partnership with Coppin University, the Healthy Living Academy is focused on promoting nutrition, exercise and healthy lifestyles. Coppin students will be trained as health coaches to teach age-appropriate nutrition and exercise classes to youth.
Peaceful Playgrounds / Healthy Foods
Kirk Elementary, Millington, Mich.
Peaceful Playgrounds believes playing cooperatively in an unstructured environment empowers children, and teaches them skills that transfer to the classroom. Students and staff at Kirk Elementary in Millington, MI will learn conflict resolution strategies, the distinctions between teasing and bullying, appropriate and inappropriate play and hurtful behavior. Students will also learn to choose healthy foods as part of an overall healthy, active lifestyle.
White Earth Land Recovery Program
White Earth Land Recovery Project, Callaway, Minn.
The White Earth Land Recovery Program provides traditional Anishinaabe and healthy foods to Ojibwe children in Pine Point School on the White Earth Reservation. This farm-to-school program addresses the fact that up to 80 percent of youth at the Pine Point School have historically been obese by the time they are in the 8th grade. This project restores Anishinaabe knowledge and pairs it with traditional and adapted physical activities such as snow shoeing, skating, dog sledding, biking, and pow wows to help Ojibwe children adopt healthy behaviors.
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Operation Fit & Healthy
Operation Food Search, Inc., St. Louis, Mo.
Operation Food Search operates a robust nutrition education program involving an average of 420 kids in St. Louis, MO annually. The primary motivation for this effort is to reduce childhood obesity and the onset of nutrition-related diseases. Operation Fit & Healthy focuses on healthy eating and includes a rigorous class and home-based physical education program designed to set in motion a lifetime appreciation for good nutrition and daily physical fitness practices. Children will be encouraged to share their new healthy lifestyle habits with their siblings and friends.
Middle School Bike Education & Nutrition Program
PedNET Coalition, Inc., Columbia, Mo.
The Middle School Bike Education & Nutrition Program provides over 900 youth in Columbia, MO with three ways to build healthy choices and self esteem into their lives. The Bike Brigade encourages students to incorporate biking into their daily lives while the Bike Club teaches youth about bike maintenance, bikes in sports, how bikes are used in other cultures, bike laws and safety practices, and bike handling skills. Nutrition programming during Bike Club meetings helps youth learn how to choose and prepare healthy foods.
S.T.O.R.Y.-Strategic Tactics for Obesity Reduction in Youth
Community Students Learning Center, Lexington, Miss.
S.T.O.R.Y.’s mission is to attack and eradicate the youth obesity epidemic in Holmes County, Mississippi. With over 42 percent of area children being overweight, S.T.O.R.Y. promotes a change in behavior in children's physical activity and nutrition. The program helps children increase their knowledge about healthy foods, build more physical activity into their day, and expose them to sports that are non-traditional to rural areas such as soccer, hockey and tennis.
Pathway (to a healthier life!)
Frank P. Phillips Memorial YMCA, Columbus, Miss.
Pathway is a supplemental physical activity and wellness program reaching out to over 400 K-5th grade students in Columbus, MS. These students attend a school just one city block from the YMCA in downtown Columbus. The program is offered three days each week to provide students with a variety of healthy activities such as an outdoor walk to the Y; warm up and flexibility exercises; cardio experience on the indoor track; sports-skills acquisition; team building and trust activities; and character and social awareness skills.
Nutrition Plus, Inc (Child & Adult Care Food Program)
Nutrition Plus, Inc., Goldsboro, N.C.
Nutrition Plus sponsors the Child & Adult Care Food Program for 140 home daycare providers in eastern North Carolina and oversees the menus for over 1,100 children. The Hurray for Whole Grains and Fun program will train and encourage providers and parents to promote healthy eating and exercise habits with emphasis on increasing consumption of whole grains and daily active play. The program provides home daycare providers and parents with nutrition education, recipes, menus and exercise plans.
SENDCAA Head Start/Early Head Start
Southeastern North Dakota Community Action Agency, Fargo, N.D.
The SENDCAA Head Start/Early Head Start program in Fargo, ND works with parents to help increase awareness of the connection between diet, exercise, and fitness. The program encourages parent-child engagement around the growing of food and parents are provided with tools, seeds and either a garden plot or containers to grow their own food. Families receive recipes that incorporate raw produce into nutritious and cost effective meals and snacks. Parents and children are encouraged to keep track of their physical activity with gardening and other organized and informal exercises. Parents also learn about low cost activities available in the community to help increase their family’s physical fitness.
Healthy Home Project
Salvation Army and Its Components, Omaha, Neb.
To address the alarming rates of obesity in youth, the Healthy Home Project provides families in Omaha, NE with healthy lifestyle education. The program is working to reduce sedentary lifestyles and increase physical activity. Each weekly session will introduce ways families can improve their overall health with the help of a Behavior Modification and Action Plan Review, nutrition education, and physical activity. Families will be encouraged to set goals for improving their nutrition and physical activity.
R.U.S.H.-Reaching Ultimate Student Health
New Jersey Community Development Corporation, Inc, Paterson, N.J.
The New Jersey Community Development Corporation is working to address patterns of unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity among area children. Safety issues in the community as well as heavy use of video games and computer activities are contributors to inactivity. In addition, working poor families, under budget and time constraints, often make uninformed, unhealthy nutritional choices. The goal of R.U.S.H. is to provide students and families with resources and programs to help them understand, improve, and maintain their health and physical well being.
Newark Museum Teen Good Health
Newark Museum Association, Newark, N.J.
Concerned by the national obesity epidemic and its impact on New Jersey youth, the Newark Museum and community health partners are implementing Generation Fit. This major exhibit and outreach initiative is designed to serve urban, (minority) youth and families. A cadre of committed teen Good Health Ambassadors will be trained by a nutritionist, exercise physiologist, and other health professionals to serve as community ambassadors for the project. Ambassadors will serve as role models to encourage their peers to make exercise a part of their daily schedules and to adopt healthy eating habits.
Wheels & Meals
Bay Shore Union Free School District, Bay Shore, N.Y.
Wheels & Meals is working to engage Bay Shore youth in activities such as skateboarding, cycling, and rollerblading while teaching healthy eating habits. Within in a physical education setting, students of diverse socio-economic, academic and ethnic backgrounds learn through the common language of physical activity. This learning can also positively influence their decision making at home. Wheels and Meals is an interdisciplinary, highly motivating program that helps youth understand the impact physical activity and nutrition has on one's well-being.
CCN of NY Child & Adult Food Care Program
Child Care Network of New York, Glendale, N.Y.
The Child Care Network of New York and the Child & Adult Food Care Program provide reimbursement for meals and snacks served by day care providers in private homes. CACFP provides higher levels of reimbursement to low-income areas, and to providers and children most in need. The program hopes to reach out to 1,434 day care providers in Queens, NY who aren’t currently participating. It’s estimated this could impact over 7,000 children, helping to improve their nutrition and eating habits.
Learn It, Grow It, Eat It
Council on the Environment, Inc., New York, N.Y.
Learn It, Grow It, Eat It is a year-round health, nutrition, and environment program that empowers 200 teens in the South Bronx to take control of their health. The program engages youth in vegetable gardening, youth-led community outreach, and running their own weekly farm-stand. Teens learn to see the link between personal health, healthy eating, and the environment. The project is an opportunity to prevent diet-related diseases, which are reaching epidemic proportions in NYC especially among young people, and to provide them with basic cooking and meal planning skills.
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Healthy Start Program
Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio
The Healthy Start Program in Cincinnati, OH consists of two components to help children learn what it takes to be healthy: Animal Trackers and Healthy Hops. Animal Trackers is devoted to promoting physical activity and motor skill development and Healthy Hops includes both nutrition and physical activity. The program is engaging and fun for young children with stories, games, songs and rhymes and is adaptable to any preschool curriculum. Children will include their families with take home activities to help them apply what they learn in the classroom into everyday life.
Power Up 4 Fitness
Mary Rutan Foundation, Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Power Up 4 Fitness believes it is important to reach young children when health habits are being formed. The program empowers and provides resources for each child and their family to establish habits for a healthy lifestyle. Power Up 4 Fitness is providing a nutrition, exercise and health education series for all 4th grade students in Logan County, OH. Children learn how to increase their self esteem and improve their body image while parents learn strategies to encourage activity and play.
The HOPE Garden
Samaritan North Lincoln HospitalLincoln City, Ore.
The HOPE Garden provides preschool and high school students the opportunity for experiential learning by developing and maintaining a school garden/greenhouse. Located at Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital, the garden will enable students to grow fruits and vegetables and learn how to incorporate them into their daily meals. The HOPE Garden will also provide children with a variety of active play and exercise classes to improve their growth and development. Children will be encouraged to practice these new skills at home with their families.
GREENS (Gardening to Revive the Environment & Educate about Nutrition in the Schoolyard)
Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc., Philadelphia, Penn.
The GREENS project will create and enhance fruit and vegetable gardens in schoolyards and on rooftops at 10 Philadelphia schools. Sponsored by the Health Promotion council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the gardens will impact over 2,000 students as they engage in experiential nutrition education focused on the food system, healthy eating and healthy cooking, and participate in physical activity through garden development and maintenance. Caregivers and families will be able to participate through family-oriented workshops designed to bring the learning home.
Whole Grain Kids - A No Brainer
Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks, Philadelphia, Pa.
Whole Grain Kids - A No Brainer motivates students to prepare healthy, well-balanced meals and snacks that limit the intake of excessive sugar, salt, and fat. The program reaches out to underprivileged students who often skip breakfast and eat foods high in fat and sugar. Students learn the benefits of consuming whole grains and fresh vegetables, how to read food packaging labels, and how to prepare healthy, well-balanced meals and snacks. Kids will plant and care for a vegetable garden and learn how gardening can be a lifelong hobby that provides good nutrition and physical activity.
SPARKing Wellness in Benton County
Benton County School System, Camden, Tenn.
SPARKing Wellness aims to increase vigorous physical activity in middle school physical education classes to improve the health status of Benton County’s youth. P.E./Wellness teachers will be trained on the SPARK curriculum. In addition, student-led initiatives will create buy-in by the community, families and students on the importance of nutrition and healthy eating and physical activity. Community events will offer fun runs and healthy food tasting demonstrations.
Oak Ridge Goes Atomic for Nutrition & Activity (ORGANA)
Oak Ridge Schools, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The Oak Ridge Goes Atomic for Nutrition & Activity program provides classroom-based physical activity integrated into core subject areas through the Take 10! Working to address early childhood obesity rates, the program is working with two Title I elementary schools in Oak Ridge, TN. The program also partners with the local extension office and food services department to expose more children to fresh fruits and vegetables and provides nutrition activities and “Tasty Tuesday” taste tests in both schools.
Promoting Healthy Food Choices & Increased Physical Activity Among Youth Gardeners
Boys and Girls Club of Bandera County, Bandera, Texas
Members of the Boys and Girls Club of Bandera County will participate in organized community vegetable gardening activities at the club. The program offers nutrition education classes, cooking demonstrations, and healthy eating and food selection classes. Youth also learn how to do container gardening at home. The program will help reinforce the benefits of healthy behaviors such as eating fresh fruits and vegetables, making healthy food choices, and getting regular physical exercise.
Head Start Healthy Living Program
National Relief Charities, Sherman, Texas
The Head Start Healthy Living Program provides families with a cross curriculum of nutritional information and physical activities to live a healthy lifestyle. Over 50 percent of target children on the Crow Creek Reservation are overweight or obese. Families can learn about making better food choices and the benefits of daily physical activity. This program will provide the community with a culturally relevant and focused preventative approach to increasing physical activity and healthy eating for preschool children who may otherwise have limited access to these resources. Parents will learn fun play activities they can do at home with their children.
Urban Sprouts Edible Gardens & Teaching Kitchen
Rio Bravo Wildlife Institute, Brownsville, Texas
The Rio Bravo Wildlife Institute provides the community with a variety of programs at the Urban Ecology Center and schools. In partnership with the Brownsville, TX Parks and Recreational Department, the Institute grows and provides easily accessible fresh vegetables and fruit to students, their families and community members at the Urban Ecology Center and schools. A community teaching kitchen will provide a place where 4th-8th grade school children from a significantly underserved population can learn how to prepare healthy meals with fresh produce. This program will help students cultivate skills to understand the connection between diet, nutrition, and the natural world.
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School Health Initiative Program (SHIP)
Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, Williamsburg, Va.
The School Health Initiative Program is partnering with Head Start programs and community preschools on nutrition education and physical activity curricula. SHIP will provide staff at six Head Start programs and four community preschools in Williamsburg, VA with training and materials needed to implement Color Me Healthy, a proven/evaluated program that promotes physical activity, increases young children’s knowledge about healthy eating and helps them choose healthy snacks. The program works with staff to help them increase their commitment to healthy eating and increased physical activity for themselves, their students, and the families they serve. SHIP hopes to expand the program to other community preschools and daycare sites.
I Am Moving, I Am Learning
Skagit/Islands Head Start, Mount Vernon, Wash.
I Am Moving, I Am Learning is a proactive approach to the alarming trend of childhood obesity among low income children in Mount Vernon, WA. Many children in the program struggle with their physical health, and are suffering the precursors of chronic diseases formerly seen only in adults. The program works to increase the amount of time students spend in moderate to vigorous physical activity during the school day and to improve nutrition choices to reduce the risk of heart disease and obesity. I Am Moving, I Am Learning uses simple games and exercises to encourage children and their families to make healthier choices, fostering physically active lifestyles and successful learning.
Smart & Healthy Students Program
Milwaukee Center for Independence, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis
The School for Early Development and Achievement serves urban children ages 3 - 8, and their families, with a special emphasis on serving children with disabilities. The Smart & Healthy Students Program uses movement (WOMMP, yoga), diet (Little Sprouts University) and nutritional supplements (Vitamin D and Omega -3) to facilitate proper brain development in young children. A dietician, occupational therapist and physician assist with the program.
Breakfast Fit-tastic
Neighborhood Table, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
Breakfast Fit-tastic provides 80-120 school age, at-risk children with a healthy breakfast and snack at the Boys & Girls Club during the summer when they are out of school. Since children’s nutrition and calorie needs aren’t met by lunch alone, children can participate in an interactive nutrition and fitness program that exposes them to a variety of fresh foods and physical activities. In the Club’s garden, children learn to grow and harvest vegetables and prepare them for eating. Parents learn about family health and wellness and receive tips on proper nutrition and healthy family meals, fun physical activities, and advice for reducing children’s TV/video screen time.
Parkside A+ After School Program
Wautoma Area School District, Wautoma, WI
The Parkside A+ After School Program serves 1,500 students across four buildings with an average free or reduced lunch rate of 62 percent. An outdoor classroom will teach conservation, recycling, nutrition, and physical activities. Students will be involved in the planning of the garden including researching which plants to use and the vitamins and nutrients they provide. A plant camera and blog will be set-up to track the progress of the garden.
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