Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is KID HEALTHY?
Founded in 2003 by ABC7, KID HEALTHY is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that addresses the childhood obesity epidemic through exciting nutrition and fitness programs that target low-income children in Southern California.

2. What is the mission of KID HEALTHY?
KID HEALTHY seeks to eliminate health disparities by engaging school children and families from the most distressed and underserved communities of Southern California through culturally appropriate obesity prevention programs that empower and measurably improve nutrition awareness and fitness levels.

3. Who makes KID HEALTHY possible and why are sponsors committed to the program?
KID HEALTHY is a partnership between leading non-profit agencies and corporate sponsors. Our public agency supporters include the Network for a Healthy California -- Children's Power Play! Campaign, as well as schools, teachers, and parents. It is made possible by corporate sponsors such as Aetna Foundation, ABC7, Weingart foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Albertsons/Sav-on, CalOptima, Allergan Foundation, L.A. Care Health Plan, González Northgate Markets, Network for a Healthy California Children's Power Play! Campaign, Network for a Healthy California Champions for Change, Community Action Partnership Orange County. Past sponsors include Entertainment Industry Foundation, United Parcel Service, Pacific Life, CVS/pharmacy, Medtronic Foundation, and Mimi's Café.

4. What is the Steps to Healthy Living Campaign?
Launched in 2003, KID HEALTHY's Steps to Healthy Living is one of the largest obesity prevention campaigns in California, running from April to May, and impacting over 95,000 4th and 5th grade students, parents, and teachers in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura County schools, youth organizations, and after school programs.

Not only are students engaged on an individual level through nutrition education activities, but they also receive fun activity trackers and incentives to record their daily steps – with the goal of reaching 10,000 steps each day! We are in our 8th year of working to give families the tools they need to be healthy.

The KID HEALTHY- Steps to Healthy Living campaign is a partnership between the Network for a Healthy California - Children's Power Play! Campaign, as well as schools, teachers and parents. Founded by KID HEALTHY and ABC7, the campaign's funding sponsors over the past 8 years include: Aetna Foundation, Albertsons/Sav-on, CalOptima, Allergan Foundation, L.A. Care Health Plan, Kaiser Permanente, González Northgate Markets, Network for a Healthy California Children's Power Play! Campaign, Network for a Healthy California Champions for Change, Community Action Partnership, Orange County. Past sponsors include: Entertainment Industry Foundation, United Parcel Service, Pacific Life, Medtronic Foundation, CVS/pharmacy and Mimi's Café.

5. Why is the Steps to Healthy Living campaign important to Southern California children and parents?
Childhood obesity is a significant public health problem in the United States and Southern California. That's why KID HEALTHY's Steps to Healthy Living Campaign is committed to doing something about it. According to an advocacy group specializing in issues affecting America's youth, one in three children are considered obese. That means they weigh more than their ideal body weight.

Illnesses such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, elevated blood cholesterol levels, and other complications are also linked to obesity. Overweight kids have a 70% chance of becoming overweight or obese adults, which increases to 80% if one parent is overweight or obese. That is why KID HEALTHY's programs and campaigns target 4th and 5th grade students and the adults in their lives to modify negative behaviors and reinforce positive attitudes about nutrition and physical activity.

6. How successful has the Steps to Healthy Living campaign been during its duration? What results have KID HEALTHY achieved?
To date, the Steps to Healthy Living Campaign has reached over 600,000 4th and 5th graders and more than 60,000 of their parents. Over 70% of the children reached are in the public schools and community youth organizations of the Los Angeles Region. Children, parents, teachers, and schools have all benefited. Some examples include:

• 85% of parents said they are buying more fruits and vegetables following their child's participation in the Steps to Healthy Living campaign.

• 79% of families report buying fewer soft drinks following their child's involvement in the Steps to Healthy Living campaign.

• Nearly one in five teachers (17%) reported their students were more active in school during and after the Steps to Healthy Living campaign, along with eating more fruits and vegetables while at school.

• Nearly one in four teachers (23%) said they increased their own physical activity following their participation in the program (67% to 90%).

• 12% of students reported they now have more than 60 minutes of physical activity daily following participation in the Steps to Healthy Living campaign.

7. What is a Local School Wellness Policy (LSWP)?
Recognizing that schools play an important role in promoting student health and preventing childhood obesity, the U.S Congress established a new requirement that all school districts with a federally funded school meal program develop and implement school wellness policies by the start of the 2006-2007 school year.

School districts must set goals for nutrition education, physical activity, types of food and beverages available on campus, and other school-based activities designed to get students moving more and eating healthier foods. Further, the school districts are required to involve the local community in developing and measuring policy implementation, specifically parents.

8. What is Padres en Acción?
In 2009, KID HEALTHY realized that many parents in low-income communities had been inactive participants in the Local School Wellness Policies (LSWP) due to language and cultural barriers, so they established Padres en Acción, a parent-led training program that empowers ethnically diverse parents to engage in school wellness policy, leadership, and communication skills. Due to the parents' concern over a lack of school-based physical activity time, the pilot group adopted the innovative structured recess into the program.

9. What is the Padres en Acción Curriculum?
The first three sessions provide an overview of local school wellness policy requirements, how to play a more active role in the school system, physical activity opportunities on campus, and a four-step advocacy approach to pursuing policy change.

The last two sessions focus on structured recess training and addresses how to lead organized physical activities, playground management, and how to motivate students to actively participate in the games.
The program ends with a graduation ceremony that includes a graduation certificate and a healthy potluck meal for the parents.

10. Who teaches the Padres en Acción classes?
Promotores, or parents who are members of the minority populations they serve, lead the Padres en Acción classes.

Through a series of five sessions, Promotores educate parents how to play a more active role in the school system using the Peer-to-Peer Model and the Popular Education Method.

11. What is structured recess?
Padres en Acción's structured recess is modified from CATCH, a training guide for teachers on leading structured physical education for children. Children who participate in structured games and activities are more active during recess, which benefits their physical health, thus reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity.

To date, Padres en Acción has recruited over 80 parents, whom are not only advocating for stricter school policies, but getting over 2,000 students engaged in physical activity during recess.

12. Why should I join Padres en Acción?
Padres en Acción empowers parents to play a bigger role in the prevention of childhood obesity. By joining our program, we provide you with the tools, resources, and confidence to become an advocate for your child's health and future. Furthermore, our parent-led structured recess component is critical as schools are cutting physical activity programs and shortening recess time.

In Orange County, 34.8 % of kids are obese and it is up to parents like YOU to get our kids moving more, eating better, and making healthier choices.

13. What is Cooking Up Change?
As a strategy for engaging students and raising awareness about healthy eating, KID HEALTHY is hosting its first annual healthy cooking contest, Cooking Up Change, in March 2012. The contest will challenge teams of Southern California high school students to create a healthy and great-tasting school meal that meets high nutrition standards, draws from ingredients commonly available to food service, and can be easily prepared in a school kitchen.

KID HEALTHY will join Healthy Schools Campaign from Chicago and other contestants to bring a meal designed by students to policymakers to raise awareness of the ongoing need for resources and standards that support healthy school food. Teams of finalists chosen from a national pool of applicants will prepare their recipes for a prestigious panel of judges at the finals in May 2012. The winning meal from the contest will be served district-wide in locations where it is possible, while the winning team will travel to Washington for a national competition as part of the effort their message to support healthy school food.

14. What is the goal of Cooking Up Change?
KID HEALTHY is partnering with Healthy School Campaign's Cooking Up Change in order to engage students and the broader community in a dialogue about changing the future of school food so that all children have access to lunches as nutritious and appetizing as those created in the contest.

The unique strength of Cooking up Change comes from its power to elevate a meal and a message created by students so that it reaches their peers nationwide and the elected leaders whose decisions about school food policy affect students' health so directly.