City will expand and create new programs to fight youth obesity.
Obesity in children is a growing problem in Missouri, and local health officials are about to unfurl a new arsenal of programs to combat the fat.
A $275,000 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health will finance programs to promote healthy eating and exercise during the next two years. The money will go to the Columbia/Boone County Health Department and other local agencies to improve nutrition and physical activity among children, with an emphasis on those from lower-income families.
“The long-term goal is to reduce obesity,” said Linda Cooperstock, public health planner for the health department and primary author of the grant request. “Obesity is one of the prime contributors to chronic disease.”
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services found that Missouri teens were more likely to be overweight, with 18.6 percent of 12- to 19-year-olds surveyed overweight compared to a national average of 14 percent in a 1999 study. Missouri children ages 5 to 11 also appeared increasingly overweight, with an increase from 19.4 percent to 21.5 percent in overweight students between the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 school years, according to state figures.
Part of the grant money will be used to offer students free samples of fruits and vegetables in hopes of guiding them to healthier eating decisions. The strategy was used last year by Columbia Public Schools when cafeterias repeatedly offered samples of snow peas and sweet potatoes before putting the items on their menus.
“It takes children probably nine times of seeing something before they’re willing to accept it,” said Pat Clark, nutrition director of Columbia Public Schools. “We found that extra attention and enthusiasm really makes a difference with the students.”
Cooperstock said people would be “surprised at the number of kids who haven’t tried, for example, a cherry tomato. Some kids just have not been exposed to this before.”
The grant will support summer programs as well as programs for the school year. Promoting proper nutrition and physical activity year-round is necessary to make lasting changes in children’s health, Cooperstock said.
“It takes a long time to gradually move people to a healthier lifestyle,” she said. “We didn’t get this way overnight. It took 20 years.”
Health officials plan to begin promoting the initiatives in January and have enlisted the promotional help of Vangel Associates, a Columbia advertising firm.
Among the newest programs expanded by the grant is the PedNet Coalition’s Walking School Bus program. The program began two years ago as a monthly “walk to school” day. It evolved into the Walking School Bus program this year, with groups of around 10 students being accompanied by a parent or mentor on their way to school. The walk to school is an easy way for children to pick up 30 to 60 minutes of exercise each day, according to PedNet Executive Director Ian Thomas.
“When (students) live less than a mile from school and end up traveling by car, it’s an opportunity missed to get that physical activity,” he said.
PedNet plans to run “buses” to four elementary schools each morning from the week after spring break until the end of the school year. Thomas said the coalition hopes to expand the number of routes at the four schools where the program has already been tried and add two additional schools.
“We always wanted to move to a more consistent program,” Thomas said. “Eventually our goal is to make it a year-round program and gradually expand it to more schools.”
To organize the expansion of the Walking School Bus program, PedNet is using money from the grant to hire a part-time coordinator, which the group hopes to hire by the end of the calendar year.
Parents and potential coordinators may find more information about the program at www.pednet.org.