Taking Action to Prevent Obesity

Posted by on July 01, 2013

As part of the American Heart Association’s Voices for Healthy Kids Initiative, a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a request for awards has been issued from its Strategic Campaign Fund.  Six awards for up to a maximum of $90,000 per award is available for 501(c)(3) organizations to support strategic issue advocacy campaigns focused on fighting childhood obesity aligned with six advocacy priorities.

To reverse the childhood obesity epidemic, Voices for Healthy Kids pursues policy-change strategies that research and practice suggest will have the greatest impact. Those strategies are focused on six key areas:

• improving the nutritional quality of snack foods and beverages in schools;
• reducing consumption of sugary beverages;
• protecting children from unhealthy food and beverage marketing;
• increasing access to affordable healthy foods;
• increasing access to parks, playgrounds, walking paths, bike lanes and other opportunities to be physically active; and
• helping schools and youth-serving programs increase children’s physical activity levels.