Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Announces $500 Million Commitment to Fight Childhood Obesity
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moodboard/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced on Thursday a $500 million commitment to help fight childhood obesity.
The half-billion-dollar commitment, over the next ten years, will go towards expanding “efforts to ensure that all children in the United States — no matter who they are or where they live — can grow up at a healthy weight,” a statement said. The foundation notes that it committed another $500 million in 2007, and since that time, “significant progress has since been made — the national rate [of childhood obesity] has leveled off and some states and cities have even reported declines — but there is still much work to do.”
The organization speaks of building a “nationwide Culture of Health” by helping children and families make healthy choices.
Specifically, the new funding aims to ensure that all children enter kindergarten at a healthy weight, make a healthy school environment the norm, make physical activity a part of the everyday experience for children, make healthy foods and drinks affordable, available and desired in all neighborhoods and eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages among children under five years old.
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