East Omaha includes a sizeable economically distressed area. Poverty rates and obesity among the youth are high and access to healthy food is a problem for those who need it most.
The Philadelphia Chapter of HOPE Worldwide, an international charity which delivers sustainable, high-impact, community-based services to the poor and needy, expanded their youth mentoring program and character building program called Saturday Academy to include Healthy Lifestyles Initiative. One of their goals was to educate and motivate children on the importance of health, physical activity and life skills. Their goal: to prevent obesity later in life. The Department of Education Physical Education Program offered anchor funding and an AmeriCorps grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service provided up to 40 members to serve as program assistants and mentors.
The Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Program has been implemented in 7,500 schools and after school programs across North America. CATCH is a mentor partnership, where parents, educators, and caregivers work together to promote physical activity and healthy food choices, as well as preventing tobacco use in children from preschool through grade 8.
For the past seven years, Lynda Carville and her staff in the Baton Rouge Roman Catholic Diocese Child Nutrition Program have carefully and systematically put together one of the finest school lunch programs in the country. USDA's School Nutrition Program provides vital assistance in defraying the cost for the program, but it is the commitment and caring of Mrs. Carville and her staff of 190 that make the difference.
Chances are you would not expect to find hand-made quiche, pasta sauce made with roasted local chicken, and hot house plum tomatoes from farms in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley in a school food program. D.C. Central Kitchen and their catering company, Fresh Start, are using their know-how and local food connections to provide freshly prepared meals for 71 "at risk" boys at the Washington Jesuit Academy.
FAME Episcopal Church partnered with local schools to provide a Let's Move Carnival. The carnival focused on factors that lead to childhood obesity targeting teachers and students during the school lunch hour. Local and state officials, other faith leaders, and members of the community were invited to attend.
In synagogues, day schools, and other Jewish institutions, students are busy sprouting seeds, grinding wheat berries into whole wheat flour, cooking dinner for their families, planting gardens and learning how Jewish tradition both informs and inspires healthy food choices.
St. Peter's Episcopal School is accredited with the Southern Association of Independent Schools. The school adopted a "Go Healthy, Go Green" commitment that encompassed the entire school focusing on making sustainable changes to not only the campus but to the diet of the students that attended the school.
Judah House of Praise Church of the Living God is a faith based institution located in the rural area of Blue Mountain, MS, in the Tippah County School District. The Timothy Project served 25 African American students in grades 7-12 and one dropout. Using technology, the project focused on providing service-learning activities that addressed obesity, nutrition, leadership skills, and anti-social behavior.
