Partnership with a local foundation to address childhood obesity in rural Washington State

This project builds on a previous Foundation grant to develop practical, valid, and reliable measures of modifiable aspects of community food or nutrition environments that could provide levers for community action to halt the rise in childhood obesity. The previous Nutrition Environment Measures Study (NEMS) developed and piloted testing measures that could summarize and quantify the extent to which community retail food outlets (e.g., grocery stores, convenience stores) and food service establishments (e.g., fast food outlets, sit-down restaurants) offer healthy and affordable food options, nutrition information, and signage/promotions encouraging healthy choices. NEMS results, published in a recent issue of the "American Journal of Health Promotion," have generated a large number of requests from researchers, community leaders, and Foundation grantees for measurement training modules and materials. This grant supports the NEMS research team in designing and delivering a training program for researchers and community residents so they can use the validated nutrition environment measures for research and community action. By using these tools to analyze the food environments near schools and children's homes, researchers and citizens will have a better understanding of the ecology of childhood obesity and of promising strategies to prevent or reduce its prevalence. Project deliverables include the development of a training module and a train-the-trainer program.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $50,000.00

Awarded on: 10/27/2005

Time frame: 11/15/2005 - 11/14/2006

Grant Number: 53151