NEW HAVEN WINS 1ST PLACE AWARD FOR
CHILDHOOD OBESITY PREVENTION INITIATIVES
MAYOR HARP, AT U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS MEETING IN D.C., ACCCEPTS $120,000 GRANT ON BEHALF OF CITY
New Haven – Mayor Toni N. Harp accepted, on behalf of the City of New Haven, a First Place award and corresponding $120,000 grant this week in recognition of the city’s ongoing childhood obesity prevention initiatives. New Haven received the top honor among ‘medium-sized’ cities at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ (USCM) winter meeting in Washington, D.C.
Mayor Harp said the city was singled out for its Neighborhood Matters! (NMNH) programming, a partnership between the City of New Haven and Yale University that targets schoolchildren in the Fair Haven and Hill districts. Its objectives are consistent with USCM goals that encourage healthy weight through balanced diet choices and regular physical activity.
“I hope all New Haven residents feel as proud as I do that our city received this national recognition for the conscientious, innovative, and cost-effective efforts underway locally to address the serious health consequences of childhood obesity,” Mayor Harp said. “The teamwork and collaboration among social service providers and food and nutrition experts is raising awareness, getting positive results, and making a healthy difference in New Haven – and winning awards as a result.”
NMNH consists of two main components: Cooking Matters, a school and neighborhood-based nutrition education program that will provide nutrition education and training in healthy cooking to children and families; and a neighborhood-based, family oriented physical activities program that will promote increased physical activity and a more active lifestyle in general among the children and their families in the community.
The NMNH partnership ultimately envisions moving beyond the two targeted neighborhoods to a city-wide implementation of the program, and has set a rigorous goal of reducing childhood obesity by 20% citywide by 2018.
The USCM grant awards are divided into small, medium and large city categories, with first place and second place awards given in each category. The second place city among medium cities was Green Bay, WI. Jacksonville, FL and Seattle, WA, and Lima, OH and North Miami, FL were the first and second place finishers in the large and small city categories, respectively.
“I believe this (program) has advanced the science on childhood obesity prevention by identifying and supporting innovative programs that have the potential to be replicated in communities across the country,” said Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of USCM.
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