Springdale’s Westwood Elementary School will receive more than $19,000 to update its physical education programs next year as part of a state grant designed to combat childhood obesity.
The school will receive $9,962 for grades kindergarten through second and $9,777 for grades third through fifth through the Child Wellness Intervention Project, said Aaron Black, executive director of the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission. Arkansas tobacco settlement dollars pay for the grants.
The grant requires schools to record student fitness data for three years, he said. Schools must also adhere to a curriculum that includes a minimum of two hours of physical activity each week.
…Gov. Mike Beebe, Arkansas First Lady Ginger Beebe and golfer Annika Sorenstam are scheduled to hand out the checks, Black said.
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First lady Michelle Obama called on the nation’s governors Saturday to join her effort to combat childhood obesity, citing Arkansas’ experience as a model for other states looking for solutions to what she characterized as a national crisis. Speaking at the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association, the first lady said states can play a key role in helping reduce the number of children who are overweight or obese - a number that studies show is nearly one in three nationwide. “Arkansas started on the issue of childhood obesity way back in 2003,” Obama told the governors. “They screened students’ BMIs [body mass indexes], which was controversial,” she said. “They got healthier food into their schools and required regular physical education classes. And as a result, that state was able to halt the rise of childhood obesity completely.”
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The Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, French fries and Snickers bars from the nation’s schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years. In legislation, soon to be introduced, candy and sugary beverages would be banned and many schools would be required to offer more nutritious fare. To that end, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will deliver a speech Monday at the National Press Club in which he will insist, according to excerpts provided to The Times, that any vending machines that remain in schools be “filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation’s children.” The first lady, Michelle Obama, said last month that she would lead an initiative to reduce childhood obesity, and her involvement “shows the importance all of us place on this issue,” Mr. Vilsack said.
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A Harrison-based health initiative has landed grants totaling nearly a half million dollars that it can begin using this month to tackle issues in Boone and Newton counties. The health needs the grants address range from childhood obesity to older Arkansans’ self-management of chronic diseases. The North Arkansas Partnership for Health Education was among 41 sites nationwide that shared $33 million in grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J. The foundation awarded the partnership $360,000 for Boone and Newton counties - the only Arkansas counties to get funding - for what it calls its “landmark” national program. The “Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities” program aims to reverse the problem of childhood obesity by 2015. It backs local efforts that seek broader access to affordable, healthful foods and to family-oriented physical activities.
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Arkansas is at the core of a national effort to reduce childhood obesity rates. It all started in April 2007, when the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced its goal to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States by 2015, and committed $500 million toward that end. But such a major initiative needed a center to support policymakers and groups across the country working with similar goals, said Dwayne Proctor, director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s childhood-obesity program management team. After a national search, the foundation asked the Arkansas surgeon general, Dr. Joe Thompson, if he would head such a center. He said yes. Now the third floor of the Victory Building in downtown Little Rock is home to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity.
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North Arkansas Partnership for Health Education (NAPHE) at Harrison has been awarded a $360,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to improve opportunities for physical activity and access to affordable healthy foods for children and families in Boone and Newton Counties, according to a press release.
Based on a rigorous selection process that drew more than 500 proposals from across the country, the community represented by Boone and Newton Counties is one of 41 sites selected for the RWJF Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities initiative. The local project will be called Healthy Kids, Healthy Ozarks.
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