Bookmark & Share

Favorites	Google
Evernote	Gmail

>> More...

RWJF funds efforts at the local, state and federal level to change public policies and community environments in ways that promote improved nutrition and increased physical activity—both of which are critical to reversing the childhood obesity epidemic. In particular, we focus on six policy priorities that the evidence suggests will have the greatest and longest-lasting impact on our children. These priorities, which can be supported by numerous approaches, include:

1. Ensure that all foods and beverages served and sold in schools meet or exceed the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Junk food has no place in our schools, whether it’s served in cafeterias; sold in vending machines, school stores or through fundraisers; or given away as classroom treats or rewards.

To help promote healthier foods and increased physical activity in schools, RWJF has supported the Healthy Schools Program since its inception. The program is an initiative of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which was founded by the American Heart Association and William J. Clinton Foundation. As part of its comprehensive approach to helping educators make their schools healthier places to learn and work, the Alliance brokered an agreement in 2006 with the American Beverage Association and the nation’s top three beverage companies to reduce sugar-sweetened beverages in schools. According to an independent evaluation of the agreement, there has been an 88 percent reduction in beverage calories shipped to schools since 2004. In 2007, the Foundation funded a multimillion-dollar expansion of the Healthy Schools Program to target states with the highest rates of obesity. The program now provides support to schools in all 50 states and reaches more than 9,000 schools either in person or online. The Foundation also is working with The Pew Charitable Trusts to ensure that the strongest federal nutrition guidelines are applied to all foods and beverages served and sold in schools.

2. Increase access to high-quality, affordable foods through new or improved grocery stores and healthier corner stores and bodegas. Research shows that having a supermarket or grocery store in a neighborhood increases residents’ fruit and vegetable consumption and is associated with lower body mass index (BMI) among adolescents. Local governments can increase access to nutritious foods by working in partnership with the business community to bring new grocery stores and healthier corner stores and bodegas to underserved areas.

RWJF’s Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities program is helping 50 communities across the country reshape their environments to support healthy living and prevent childhood obesity. As part of this effort, many communities are building new farmers’ markets, bringing supermarkets back to lower-income areas and getting more healthy foods to rural areas. The Foundation also is working closely with The Food Trust, a Philadelphia-based advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food. The Food Trust has achieved tremendous success in bringing supermarkets back to underserved communities in Pennsylvania, and together we’re seeking to replicate those results in other states.

3. Increase the time, intensity and duration of physical activity during the school day and out-of-school programs. Schools can increase students’ physical activity by requiring active participation in daily physical education classes and by finding ways to add physical activity throughout the day. After-school programs located in schools, parks and recreational centers also can find innovative ways to help children be active.

With support from RWJF, Save the Children’s Campaign for Healthy Kids is leading advocacy efforts in 16 Southern states to help children eat healthier foods and be more active. The program works with local advocates to identify important policy and environmental opportunities, and then crafts strategies for tackling them. For example, it already has helped schools in Tennessee ensure they are able to provide students enough time for physical activity. And for the last six years, Pioneering Healthier Communities, a program of the YMCA of the USA, has worked to change the environments of after-school programs run by the YMCA and other community organizations, so more children can participate in physical activity outside of the school day. RWJF is supporting the expansion of the program to more than 30 communities in at least six states.

4. Increase physical activity by improving the built environment in communities. Communities can increase opportunities for physical activity by building new sidewalks, bike paths, parks and playgrounds or by improving those that already exist. To encourage families to use these resources and facilities, they also can implement traffic-safety measures and crime-prevention strategies, so children are safe when walking, biking or playing outside.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership works with local communities to help more children and adolescents walk and bike to school safely. The partnership and its state networks focus on removing barriers to physical activity in lower-income communities, expanding sidewalks and bike lanes, and developing anti-crime efforts that will create safer environments for children to be active. Active Living Research continues to build the evidence base about the importance of physical activity and identify which policies and programs most effectively support activity. Some of its recent research has found that children who live closer to parks, open spaces, sidewalks and bike lanes are more likely to be active than children who do not.

5. Use pricing strategies—both incentives and disincentives—to promote the purchase of healthier foods. Food prices influence consumers’ purchasing decisions, and revenue generated by user fees, taxes or other price increases on unhealthy foods can be used to help meet the health and nutrition needs of children and families.

Several RWJF programs are exploring the connection between food and beverage prices and children’s health. Studies from Healthy Eating Research show that, when healthy foods like fruits and vegetables are more affordable, children are less likely to gain excessive weight. The program also is examining how federal agricultural subsidies can affect the production and prices of fruits and vegetables nationwide. Together, Healthy Eating Research and Bridging the Gap are contributing to the early body of research on the impact of increased prices of sugar-sweetened beverages on childhood obesity rates. Much of this research indicates that larger price increases may reduce obesity rates and that the revenues raised could be effective in helping families afford healthy foods and beverages or in other obesity prevention efforts.

6. Reduce youths' exposure to the marketing of unhealthy foods through regulation, policy and effective industry self-regulation. Unhealthy products are heavily marketed to children, and research shows that exposure to food marketing messages increases children’s obesity risk. Some studies suggest that marketing restrictions are among the most powerful and cost-effective interventions available.

The Foundation is exploring the extent to which food and beverage marketing affects children’s food preferences and their risk for obesity. With our support, the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University released one of the most comprehensive analyses ever of the marketing of cereal to children. The 2009 report found that the least-healthy cereals are the ones most aggressively and frequently marketed to children of all ages, often in ways parents are less likely to see. The National Policy and Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN), created by Public Health Law and Policy and funded by RWJF, helps leaders in the field navigate complex legal and policy issues by providing the latest research and developing model policies for communities. Restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children is one of the program’s key focus areas.

Throughout our work, RWJF has a strong focus on equity. All of our children deserve to live, learn and play in communities and schools that support and encourage healthy eating and active living. To help realize this vision, Communities Creating Healthy Environments works with diverse, community-based organizations to increase access to healthy foods and safe places to play in communities of color.

The Foundation also supports efforts to engage government leaders at all levels. Leadership for Healthy Communities educates state and local government leaders nationwide about ways to create healthier, more vibrant communities and provides them with the resources they need to prevent childhood obesity through public policies that support active living and healthy eating.

But reaching out to policy-makers is only part of the solution. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity works with organizations and communities, as well as policy-makers, to shape and coordinate efforts that will build a sustainable national movement to prevent childhood obesity. The center gathers the best available evidence to advance policy priorities at the local, state and federal levels; convenes stakeholders engaged in obesity prevention; provides tools and resources to expand the movement’s reach; and is a catalyst to stimulate action on the ground.

RWJF also is one of six founding organizations of the Partnership for a Healthier America, an independent, nonpartisan organization launched in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to prevent childhood obesity. The partnership is bringing together public, private and nonprofit leaders to secure sustained, measurable commitments toward the goal of reversing the epidemic, as well as to track the impact of those commitments.

The programs described in this document are only a sampling of the Foundation’s efforts to prevent childhood obesity. For a full list of programs, visit www.rwjf.org/childhoodobesity.

What We Don't Fund 

Because RWJF’s strategy for reversing the childhood obesity epidemic hinges on changing policies and environments, we generally do not support projects that provide only information or education. Because we focus on preventing obesity, we do not invest in research regarding medical or surgical treatment of obesity. In keeping with Foundation policy, we give preference to proposals developed by public agencies and tax-exempt organizations.

RWJF does not accept unsolicited proposals for its work to prevent childhood obesity. We issue specific solicitations for proposals and ideas throughout the year. If you are registered to receive funding alerts through the Foundation’s Web site at www.rwjf.org, you will receive e-mail notices of each funding opportunity.