State joins fight against child obesity
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs is releasing $20 million from the state’s coffers to help public and charter schools fight childhood obesity.
The new Texas Fitness Now grant program will support in-school physical education, nutrition and fitness programs for students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
The grant program will be available over the next two years. The program will be open to schools with a student enrollment that is at least 75 percent economically disadvantaged. Some 700 schools throughout the state will be eligible to apply for grants.
“Texas Fitness Now will provide crisis money for our schools,” Combs says. “Childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes among children is an epidemic that we, as a state, must address now. Obesity cost Texas businesses an estimated $3.3 billion in 2005 and could cost employers $15.8 billion annually by 2025 if the trend continues.”
The U.S. Surgeon General’s office indicates that overweight children have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese as adults.
The minimum grant is $1,500 and schools can receive more, based on their enrollment. An estimated 270,000 middle school students in Texas could benefit from the grants.
The deadline for schools to apply for a Texas Fitness Now grant is Oct. 1.
Web site: www.window.state.tx.us
San Antonio, Texas, Child obesity
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