Friday, May 9, 2008

CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) announced yesterday that the District has been awarded a $100,000 grant to help fight childhood obesity. The money will be distributed to schools and organizations for programs that help improve nutrition and physical fitness.

The Healthy Communities program is sponsored by the General Mills Foundation. Recent studies show that the District has the highest percentage of overweight youths, ages 10-18, in the country.

The Mayor's Commission on Food and Nutrition will distribute grants of $25,000 each to the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Charter School, Unity Health Care Inc., Brainfood; and the Young Women's Project.

"Investing in health and nutrition education can have a far-reaching effect on helping children learn how to eat healthy and stay physically active," said Ellen Goldberg Luger, executive director of the General Mills Foundation.

"We're proud to support the District of Columbia's innovative efforts to empower programs that offer youth the motivation and the resources to lead healthy, active lives."

-- Jillian S. Jarrett

The Council for Court Excellence, a nonprofit civic organization that works on justice issues in the Washington region, last night honored two longtime lawyers for outstanding public service.

The council feted John Payton, a veteran civil rights lawyer and former D.C. corporation counsel, and Maureen Thornton Syracuse, who runs the pro bono program for the D.C. Bar.

Payton is president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Thornton Syracuse runs a program that recruits lawyers to provide free legal services to the poor and disadvantaged.

They were given the council's annual Justice Potter Stewart Award, named after the late Supreme Court justice, at a dinner attended by scores of judges, lawyers and other guests.

-- Keith L. Alexander