The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation is an unprecedented partnership between more than 40 of the nation’s largest retailers, non-profit organizations, food and beverage manufacturers and trade associations aimed at helping to reduce obesity. We want to help consumers lead healthier lives by making energy balance – calories in balanced with calories out – a daily habit. We will do this by increasing access and opportunities for physical activity, healthier nutrition options and raising awareness of the energy balance approach – in the marketplace, in the workplace and in schools.

Connecting with Consumers in the Marketplace: Participating companies are committing to build on existing efforts and will be making changes to their products, packaging and labeling to make it easier for consumers to manage their calorie intake while preserving or enhancing overall nutrition quality. Specific options companies may undertake include product reformulation and innovation; providing smaller portions; redesigning packaging and labeling; placing calorie information on the front of products; providing consumers with information and educational materials; and in-store promotion of the initiative.

Empowering Employees in the Workplace: Participating companies will undertake new or enhance existing programs to help employees achieve and maintain a healthy weight. This may include providing calorie information and healthier food and beverage options in cafeterias, vending machines and break rooms; providing access to exercise at work through individual and group activities; offering weight management programs; and implementing tools to track progress, like health risk appraisals.

Creating Healthy Habits in Schools: The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will expand the successful Healthy Schools Partnership to additional schools in Kansas City, Des Moines, Washington, D.C., Chicago and a tribal community in Iowa. This expansion follows a successful pilot in Kansas City. The Healthy Schools Partnership integrates nutrition education and physical education through a school-based curriculum to help children develop lifelong positive healthy habits. The Healthy Schools Partnership was developed by the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition Foundation, PE4life and the American Dietetic Association Foundation.

Measuring Our Progress

Each of the three Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation focus areas – the marketplace, the workplace and schools will be evaluated by an independent evaluator.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will support an independent evaluation of the HWCF activities in the marketplace. RWJF will fund an independent group of scientists to define metrics that will be used to track progress and assess the overall impact of the marketplace effort. The resulting evaluation reports will be released publicly.

The National Business Group on Health will create a set of standardized metrics. These metrics will allow us to measure our impact in multiple ways, including our ability to: foster and maintain a healthy culture, offer the best range and type of resources and tools feasible in a particular workplace, and gain significant levels of employee participation and satisfaction. Best practices will be shared with other employers so they may be replicated.

The University of California, Berkeley Center for Weight and Health will evaluate the progress of the Healthy Schools Partnership in its pilot communities over a three-year period. Progress will be measured by student knowledge, attitudes and behavior regarding energy balance; impact of the program on fitness scores and BMI measures; improved food choice behavior; and increased physical activity.

Partners

We look forward to working with our inaugural partners to promote the importance of energy balance. Our partners include the American Council on Fitness & Nutrition Foundation, the American Dietetic Association Foundation, Girl Scouts of the USA, the National Wildlife Federation, Our Park Place, PE4life and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Public Education Campaign

Our efforts will include a soon-to-be announced national public education campaign on energy balance to help raise awareness about the importance of balancing a healthy diet with physical activity, particularly among children ages six to 11 and their parents and caregivers.

Visit kids.healthyweightcommit.org.