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$400,000 to fight obesity
By George P. Hassett
The
city's health department was awarded a $400,000 grant this week to
continue its Shape Up Somerville program, which battles obesity in
children.
Shape Up Somerville is a citywide campaign, started by
Tufts University in 2003, to increase daily physical activity and
healthy eating by offering children healthier snacks in schools and
encouraging exercise.
The grant, from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, will allow the city to expand the program and hire an
additional health department employee to oversee it, said Mayor Joseph
A. Curtatone..
"Over the past five years Shape Up Somerville has
shown us that through creative thinking and collaboration we truly can
combat the challenges of obesity in our community," Curtatone said.
Somerville
was one of nine communities selected this week to receive the grant. By
late 2009, 70 communities will be participating. Nationally, the Robert
Wood Johnson foundation is expected to spend $44 million on the
initiative
"The program will provide replicable, real-time
solutions for addressing the epidemic," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D.,
M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We
expect that this vital work by Shape Up Somerville will help Somerville
become the kind of community where all children can have healthier
lives."
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