Wednesday, December 3, 2008

A D.C.-based program aimed at fighting childhood obesity said yesterday it will receive a $400,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Summit Health Institute for Research and Education will partner with six agencies and community groups to reduce childhood obesity in the District, with a focus on youngsters in Wards 7 and 8. The partners include the D.C. Department of Health, the D.C. Office of Planning, the National Black Child Development Institute, D.C. Hunger Solutions and the Greater Washington Urban League.

The money is part of the foundation's Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities program, a $44 million national initiative aimed at finding community-based solutions to the obesity problem. Groups in eight other cities also received grants.

SHIRE and its partners will focus on improving access to healthful, affordable food and opportunities for exercise for children. In the District, an estimated 40 percent of schoolchildren and pre-adolescents are overweight or obese.

The foundation plans to spend $500 million over five years in an effort to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States by 2015.

"We expect that this vital work by the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities partnership in Washington, D.C., will help Wards 7 and 8 in the District become the kind of community where all children can have healthier lives," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the foundation president and chief executive.

-- Lori Aratani