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WASHINGTON,
D.C. June 1, 2017 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National
Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced more than $6.6 million
for 10 grants to combat childhood obesity, a public health issue that affects
one in five school-aged children. The funding is made possible through NIFA’s
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
“Healthy habits
start with families,” said NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy. “With these NIFA
investments, we are helping at-risk families make lifestyle changes that will
add up to a lifetime of better health for their children.”
AFRI is America’s
flagship competitive grants program for foundational and translational
research, education, and extension projects in the food and agricultural
sciences. The AFRI Childhood Obesity Prevention Challenge Area supports
projects to gain a better understanding of the factors behind childhood weight
gain, to develop and expand effective interventions, and to train more parents,
caregivers, and educators to promote childhood obesity prevention.
Fiscal year 2016 grants include:
- University
of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, $148,163
- University
of Connecticut, Mansfield, Connecticut, $149,996
- New
York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, $800,000
- Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, $800,000
- North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, North
Carolina $988,645
- Winston-Salem
State University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, $150,000
- Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio, $978,383
- University
of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma, $900,000
- Vanderbilt
University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, $800,000
- American
University, Washington, D.C., $900,000
Among
these FY16 projects is an online educational program offered by Rutgers
University to help parents promote
healthy eating and home environments among preschool-age children. Vanderbilt
University will develop and test a smartphone application that provides
culturally appropriate shopping and nutrition education for low-income women
with young children.
More
information on these projects is available on the NIFA
website.
To
date, NIFA has invested more than $168 million through the AFRI Childhood Obesity Prevention Challenge Area.
Among
previously funded projects, Colorado State
University
is conducting an education and extension project to improve health behaviors of
4-year-old children in five Head
Start centers across eastern Colorado. The project measures preschoolers’
willingness to try new foods and encourages more physical activity. Researchers
are also developing mobile applications to improve parent-child interaction
related to healthy eating and exercise. Among results to date, the program has trained
57 Head Start educators, it has also increased preschoolers’ motor skills and
prevented weight gain in children who were overweight or obese at the beginning
of the program.
A Cornell University project is improving the lunch room experience by
examining how environmental changes affect the selection and consumption of
fruits and vegetables. Researchers analyzed consumption patterns by using tray
waste data at 24 urban, rural, and suburban middle school cafeterias in New
York State. Study finding suggest that environmental changes – such as decorating
the cafeteria with healthy food posters, or offering vegetables at every
service area – could result in a greater increase in selection and consumption
of healthy items such as fruits, vegetables, and milk. By helping children
develop better eating habits at school, this project can help reduce calorie
intake and improve nutrition.
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research,
education, and extension and promotes transformative discoveries that solve
societal challenges.
NIFA's integrated research, education and extension programs support the best
and brightest scientists and extension personnel whose work results in
user-inspired, groundbreaking discoveries that combat childhood obesity,
improve and sustain rural economic growth, address water availability issues,
increase food production, find new sources of energy, mitigate climate
variability, and ensure food safety. To
learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural science, visit www.nifa.usda.gov/impacts, sign up for email
updates or follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAimpacts.
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USDA is an equal
opportunity lender, provider, and employer.
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