Today, nearly 1 in 3 children (23+ million) in America are obese or overweight, increasing their risk for diabetes, heart disease and even some types of cancer. The implications are ominous:

According to “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future” by America’s Health Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, because of obesity, the current generation of young people may be the first in American history to live sicker and die younger than their parents’ generation. In addition to the related health risks, both undernourished and obese children have lower energy and attention levels and are less likely to succeed in the classroom and beyond. A 2013 national report showed that students who eat school breakfast attend 1.5 more days of school per year and score 17.5% higher on standardized math tests. America’s obesity-related medical treatments cost $210 billion annually, and obese people spend 42% more on healthcare than healthy people. Childhood obesity accounts for $14.1 billion in direct costs.

 

 

AFHK believes that schools are an ideal leverage point to transform kids’ health and wellness – as they are the locations where children spend more than 1,200 hours each year. Its initiatives focus on advancements in school policies, systems, environments, programs and practices to increase and improve the work of schools and parents around: (1) the nutritional quality of foods served (including school breakfast programs); (2) nutrition education; (3) before, during and after-school physical activity; and (4) physical education. By creating healthier schools and healthy student behaviors, kids are primed to learn and ready to achieve success in the classroom and beyond. That is, integrating health into school improvement plans gives students the opportunity for an academic advantage – what AFHK calls “The Learning Connection” (http://bit.ly/AFHKlearn).

 

In 2010, the nation took a major step in combatting the twin issues of childhood obesity and hunger with the passing of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which required school districts to develop formal wellness policies that promote the health of students and address the growing problem of childhood obesity at the school-building level. While more than 98% of districts have adopted the required wellness policy, local implementation is severely lagging because schools simply don’t know what to do. Action for Healthy Kids’ work is focused on this grassroots need; headquartered in Chicago, AFHK programs are carried out in schools and communities in 40 states across the country, and in 2013, its resources benefited more than 29,000 schools and 12.9 million children.