By Mallory McGowin
Tuesday, December 02, 2008 at 2:03 p.m.
COLUMBIA -- The City of Columbia was selected Tuesday as one of nine leading cities in a new national program to combat childhood obesity, a growing epidemic afflicting nearly one-third of American children. The program is all about giving kids more opportunities for physical activity and access to affordable healthy foods. KRCG's Mallory McGowin was at Tuesday morning's announcement and has details on the new health initiative.
Students from Grant and Lee Elementary Schools walked to the YouZeum Tuesday morning for a healthy snack and a big announcement.
The City of Columbia, the University of Missouri , and Columbia Public Schools have all teamed up with the PedNet Coalition to receive a $400,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to start the "Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities" initiative.
"The idea of this grant is to help make policy and environmental changes to advance healthy living among children and their families," said Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman.
Organizers say Columbia was chosen because of the many healthy and active lifestyle intiatives the city has already implemented, including "Bike, Walk, and Wheel Week" and the walking school bus program.
Organizers plan to target Columbia's First Ward, where there's a high low-income and minority population where children are at the highest risk of obesity.
"Nutritious food is not available in the first ward; onlyl calorie dense fast food and snack foods," said PedNet Coalition Executive Director Ian Thomas. "When fresh fruits and vegetables are available, they're generally not affordable."
And Columbia Public Schools administrators were on hand to drive the message of healthy and active living home to their students.
"You know, Columbia Public Schools, we want you to learn. We want you to learn to read, write, know social studies and science and everything like that," said Columbia Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Jack Jensen. "But more importantly, probably the most important thing that all those connect to: we want you to be healthy."
The other eight cities selected for this $44 million national program include Chicago, Oakland, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Louisville, Kent. An additional 60 cities will be added to the program in December 2009.