Childhood Obesity Program Area

RWJF is committed to tackling one of the most urgent threats to the health of our children and families—childhood obesity. Our goal is to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

School District Wellness Policies

February 28, 2013 | Report

A report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Bridging the Gap program finds that progress to improve school district wellness policies has stalled.

Child-Directed Marketing Within and Around Fast-Food Restaurants

December 1, 2012 | Issue Brief

The fast-food industry spends $660 million to market its products to children and adolescents each year and spends the most on toys for kids’ meals—$360 million for the cost of toys alone.  These efforts help fast-food restaurants sell more than 1.2 ...

Sports Participation in Secondary Schools

October 1, 2012 | Issue Brief

Participating in school sports is an important means to increase physical activity among adolescents. This brief examines participation during the school year by secondary school students in interscholastic sports (played against teams from other sc ...

Beverages Sold in Public Schools

August 14, 2012 | Issue Brief

Some Encouraging Progress, Additional Improvements are Needed

School Policies and Practices to Improve Health and Prevent Obesity

August 13, 2012 | Report

National Secondary School Survey Results

Zoning for Healthy Food Access Varies by Community Income

April 1, 2012 | Issue Brief

Zoning and land use laws allow or prohibit different types of food outlets, such as supermarkets, farmers’ markets, fast-food restaurants, and convenience stores, in a community. As such, these laws affect people’s access to healthy affordable foods ...

Preventing Childhood Obesity

January 1, 2005 | Report

Recommended Reading RWJF President Discusses IOM Childhood Obesity Action Plan Promoting the Institute of Medicine's Report on Preventing Childhood Obesity to Urban America Increasing Active Living: A Guide for Policy-Makers Although children's heal ...

Weight Status Among Adolescents in States That Govern Competitive Food Nutrition Content

September 1, 2012 | Journal Article

This article provides evidence that competitive food laws are associated with adolescent weight gain—students exposed to stronger laws gained less weight on average than students in states without such laws. Objective height and weight data were gat ...

Trends in Competitive Venue Beverage Availability

August 1, 2012 | Journal Article

Sweetened drinks are a primary source of added dietary sugar for children. Drinks obtained at school in “competitive venues”—outside of the federally reimbursable school meal program—significantly contribute to student caloric intake. These research ...

Agriculture Policy is Health Policy

July 1, 2009 | Journal Article

Arguing that a healthy food system should ensure the well-being of both consumers and farmers (in addition to the producers, processors and distributors upon whom they depend), the authors make several recommendations for personal, institutional and regulatory actions that health professionals can take to influence future food policy.