By Rose Anthony

It’s an official War on Obesity.

An unprecedented coalition of more than 40 food and beverage manufacturers, retailers, and non-governmental organizations have launched the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a national, multi-year effort designed to help reduce obesity – especially childhood obesity – by 2015. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will promote ways to help people achieve a healthy weight through energy balance. It focuses on three critical areas – the marketplace, the workplace and schools.

“The stakeholders involved in this commitment recognize that by working together we can make a real difference on the obesity issue in our country,” said David Mackay, president and chief executive officer of Kellogg Company and chairman of the board of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. “We are united in an unprecedented, collaborative and focused effort to help children and adults achieve better energy balance between calories in and calories out.”

The foundation will promote the concept of energy balance – balancing calories consumed as part of a healthy diet with calories expended by physical activity –to people in the places where they spend much of their time: to consumers in the marketplace, to employees through workplace programs and to children in schools.

Members of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation have already committed $20 million to this joint initiative to raise awareness about the importance of balancing a healthy diet with physical activity, particularly among children ages six to 11 years old and their parents and caregivers. This effort will include a soon-to-be announced national public education campaign on energy balance.

Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation efforts include:

Connecting with Consumers in the Marketplace Participating companies 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 School 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. The Healthy School Partnership is being evaluated by the University of California at Berkeley, Center for Weight and Health.

“By developing and promoting common sense solutions that society can embrace with certainty, we believe we can help make a difference in the fight against obesity,” said Ric Jurgens, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Hy-Vee, a regional grocery chain, and vice chairman of the board of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation.
For more information, visit www.healthyweightcommit.org.