March 2-4, 2008
Little Rock, AR

At a kickoff event welcoming nearly 200 new schools to the fight against childhood obesity, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, stated a sobering statistic: one in three children is overweight or obese.

Dr. Gupta joined representatives from 193 schools from 16 states, and a host of experts on children’s health at the Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas for the Alliance’s “Healthy Schools Program” Kick-Off event March 2-4. The program, which supports schools to create healthier environments for students and staff, is expanding into states most affected by the childhood obesity epidemic, thanks to a $20 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

“This generation of children could stand to live a shorter lifespan than their parents because of the obesity epidemic. Think about that for a second— that’s a pretty remarkable thing,” said Dr. Gupta. “All the advances we’ve made in medical science, all the advances we’ve made in medicine overall, could all be reversed by this one epidemic.”

Teachers, school nurses, physical education teachers, and school administrators were among the representatives in the group. Each representative left the event with an action plan to implement at their school, including creating school wellness councils, offering healthier foods and beverages in school, and adding physical activity components before, during and after the school day. Throughout the event, several physical activity breaks, led by enthusiastic instructors, got the group up and grooving. The fitness gurus encouraged the reps to try to squeeze short physical activity breaks, of even 5 minutes, into busy school days. A group of students from the Horace Mann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School in Little Rock joined the fun, getting into the physical activity routine, and welcoming Dr. Gupta to stage.

Dr. Howell Wechsler from the Center for Disease Control’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) fired up the crowd with a riveting call to action. Schools across the nation have been pressured to cut back on physical education in lieu of “academics”, he said, but research shows that when physical education is part of a school curriculum, absenteeism is reduced and academic achievement is improved, among other positive factors.

“Health and education are inextricably linked,” Dr. Wechsler said. He urged the crowd to challenge those who advocate cutting physical education for more reading and math instruction, to demand an answer to the following question: “Where is the evidence?”

He added, “One sector of society is not responsible for this. Behaviors are shaped by all sectors of society. There is no magic pill to make change,” Dr. Wechsler said. “We need a multi-component, coordinated, evidence-based approach.”

Other guest speakers included John Govea, Senior Program Officer from the RWJF Foundation; Dr. Gene Carter, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development; Dr. Anthony Fletcher, President of the South Central Affiliate Board of the American Heart Association. Also represented was CNN’s “Fit Nation”, the grassroots advocacy project that CNN, and Dr. Gupta, have embraced to address obesity.

Also announced at the event was a new collaboration with Sportime, a leading source of physical education equipment in the U.S., and SPARK P.E., which will offer grants and discounts for physical education curriculum, training, and equipment for schools enrolled in the Healthy Schools Program.

The RWJF expansion grant will be allocated through staff and resources in states including: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Washington, DC, and West Virginia. The Alliance expects to provide in-person support to more than 8,000 schools by 2010, a dramatic increase from the 768 schools currently receiving hands-on guidance. Any school in the country— public or private— can take advantage of the Healthy Schools Program at no cost through its online support option.

“While obesity statistics are daunting, hope is here”, Dr. Wechsler said. He pointed to a study conducted from 2000-2006 tracking food offerings at schools. Over the six years, schools offering salads increased from 53% to 73%. Schools offering [fried] French fries declined from 40% to 19%.

“That means 25,000 schools stopped selling [fried] French fries,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but we are making progress.”