Kansas City Selected for National Program

Contact:
Karen Siebert

KANSAS CITY, MO - KC Healthy Kids 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 the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kan., and the Ivanhoe neighborhood of Kansas City, MO.

Based on a rigorous selection process that drew more than 500 proposals from across the country, Kansas City is one of 41 sites selected for the RWJF Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities initiative. Additional local partners in the initiative are the Argentine Neighborhood Development Association, Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, Weighing In Collaborative, Mid America Regional Council and the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition.

Partners in Kansas City's Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities initiative will focus on removing barriers to healthy eating and active living in both Argentine and Ivanhoe. They will advocate for policies that improve access to healthy food, such as making more fresh food available through community gardens, corner stores and full-service grocery stores. The partners in the initiative also will advocate for policies that improve the physical environment and make it more conducive to active lifestyles, such as adding or improving sidewalks and walking trails.

A study of 43 schools in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., found that 34 percent of kindergarteners are overweight or obese. By fifth grade, that number jumps to 41 percent. For the entire metro Kansas City area, fully 63 percent of adults over the age of 18 are overweight or obese. By focusing on systemic and policy changes, the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities initiative not only seeks to prevent and reduce childhood obesity, but to have an impact on adult health as well.

"This grant will help empower our community to prevent childhood obesity," said Gretchen Kunkel, president of KC Healthy Kids. "Kansas City has the capacity to make changes today that will improve the lives of our children well into adulthood. All of us will benefit from a healthier, more active community."

"To reverse this epidemic, communities are going to have to rally around their kids and provide the opportunities they need to be healthy," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Through this project, KC Healthy Kids and its partners are doing what it takes to make sure children lead better lives."

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities is a $33 million national program and RWJF's largest investment to date in community-based solutions to childhood obesity. With nine Leading Sites chosen in late 2008, the program now spans 50 communities from Seattle to Puerto Rico. All are targeting improvements in local policies and their community environment-changes that research indicates could have the greatest impact on healthier eating, more active living and obesity prevention. Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities is a cornerstone of RWJF's $500 million commitment to reverse the country's childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

The 40 other cities and regions just announced as Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities sites are:

All were selected because of strong vision, partnership and a commitment to make lasting change in their communities. The new program grants will continue through June 2013.

Visit www.healthykidshealthycommunities.org to learn more about these communities' work and plans.

About KC Healthy Kids
KC Healthy Kids is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing obesity and improving the health of Greater Kansas City's children. KC Healthy Kids provides strategic leadership in the battle against childhood obesity by informing, advocating and mobilizing the resources and talents of the community. Working in both Kansas and Missouri, KC Healthy Kids has led coalitions and launched initiatives designed to increase healthy eating and active living opportunities for children, including the Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition, the Walking School Bus, the Schoolyard Gardens Initiative, Physical Activity Across the School Day and Good Food + Good Business = Good Futures.

About Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities
Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), advances community-based solutions that will help reverse the childhood obesity epidemic. It focuses on changing policies and environments to support active living and healthy eating among children and families. The program places special emphasis on reaching children who are at highest risk for obesity on the basis of income, race/ethnicity and geographic location. It will support RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States by 2015.

The Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities national program office is housed at Active Living By Design, part of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Established in 2001 as an RWJF national program, Active Living By Design now serves funders and partnerships across the country that are fostering community-led change to build a culture of active living and healthy eating.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years, the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.