RWFJ/AHA Collaboration Aims to Reverse Childhood Obesity
The Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have joined in an ambitious collaboration to reverse
the nation's childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. RWJF will provide AHA with $8
million in initial funding to create and manage an advocacy initiative focused
on changing local, state, and federal policies to help children and adolescents
be more active and eat healthier foods.
Under the new initiative, RWJF and AHA will focus on policy interventions to
advance 6 priorities that research shows are likely to have the greatest impact
on childhood obesity. AHA will develop the overarching strategy that connects
efforts across all 6 priorities and will fund efforts in underserved
communities for the last 3 of them:
- improving the nutritional quality of snack foods
and beverages in schools
- reducing consumption of sugary beverages
- protecting children from unhealthy food and
beverage marketing
- helping schools and youth-serving programs
increase children's physical activity levels
- increasing access to parks, playgrounds, walking
paths, bike lanes, and other opportunities to be physically active
- increasing access to affordable healthy foods
Both
RWJF and AHA will focus on reaching communities hardest hit by the epidemic,
including communities of color and lower-income communities.