Children from New Mexico to New York Learn How to Eat Healthy and Stay Fit with the General Mills Champions for Healthy Kids Program

Business Wire
June 19, 2006

Fifty community-based organizations and schools across the U.S. have received grants totaling $500,000 to support innovative programs that equip children with the tools they need to live healthy, balanced and active lives.

The Champions for Healthy Kids grants program is a partnership of the General Mills Foundation, the American Dietetic Association Foundation and the President's Challenge. Since 2002, the program has invested more than $8 million in youth nutrition and fitness programs that have served over 150,000 children across the country.

Each of this year's 50 nonprofit groups, schools or government organizations will receive a grant of $10,000 to help bolster new or current programming. The programs serve a cross section of children cutting across racial, geographic and economic lines. They include:

The THINK for Student Health program in Santa Ana, Calif., which will introduce a nutrition and fitness curriculum to after-school programs serving 2,000 primarily Spanish-speaking elementary school students living in poverty. The program will provide skills for eating nutritionally balanced foods and incorporating daily physical activities into the lives of these students, many of whom can't afford to participate in organized sports and receive limited nutritional training at home.

The Color Me Healthy Curriculum, developed by the University of Arkansas for the Medical Sciences Head Start Program in Little Rock. Recognizing that 38 percent of Arkansas children are overweight, the program, will expose preschool children and their parents to healthier lifestyles by adding more fruits and vegetables to their diets, drinking more water, controlling portions, choosing healthy snacks and increasing physical activity through an hour of active play every day and aerobics.

The ReCharge Western Kentucky! Program uses fun, interactive team-based activities and goal-setting to teach third- through sixth-graders in rural Kentucky how to develop good nutrition and physical fitness habits.

The Go the Extra Mile-Cleveland program in St. Paul, Minn., will introduce nutrition and fitness education to children from Cleveland Middle School, many of whom are recent immigrants from refugee camps in Thailand or who have fled their countries because of political unrest. The program will help them exercise more and introduce them to a variety of nutritious food choices.

"We are inspired by the passion, creativity and drive of these grassroots programs that are making an impact in their communities by helping children and teens learn how to eat better and become more physically active," said Ellen Goldberg Luger, executive director of the General Mills Foundation and a General Mills vice president. "We know from numerous studies that a child's diet and level of activity affects his or her school performance, mental and emotional well- being and long-term physical health."

The grant recipients are required to incorporate a fitness and nutrition component in their program, and operate with the guidance of a dietetic professional. Using its resources and expertise on nutrition issues, the American Dietetic Association Foundation plays a critical role in evaluating the grant proposals.

An additional component of the Champions for Healthy Kids program includes sponsorship of the Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards (PALA), as well as the development of nutrition and fitness mentoring models. For example, the General Mills Foundation supports the PALA program in Minneapolis Public Schools, where this year, some 8,500 second- through eighth-graders earned the PALA award for completing the six-week fitness program.

Information on the General Mills Champions program, grant applications, best practices and model programs that can be adopted by any organization are available at www.generalmills.com/foundation. Additional information on the Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards can be found at www.presidentschallenge.org

The General Mills Foundation, celebrating more than 50 years of giving, is a champion for stronger communities. In fiscal 2005, General Mills awarded $78 million to communities across the country, representing more than 5 percent of company pretax profits that year. Of the total, the Foundation contributed more than $20 million in grants in the targeted areas of youth nutrition and fitness, social services, education, and arts and culture. General Mills recently ranked number 14 on the Business Ethics magazine list of the 100 best corporate citizens. In 2005, Business Week named the company one of the nation's "most generous cash givers" for corporate philanthropy.

The American Dietetic Association Foundation is the philanthropic arm of American Dietetic Association. It is a 501(c)(3) charity devoted exclusively to nutrition and dietetics. The Foundation funds scholarships and awards, education and research projects, and ADA strategic initiatives that promote optimal nutrition health and well-being of the public. It is the largest provider of scholarships and awards in the field of dietetics.