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Medical project promotes healthier living

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Business First of Buffalo - by Tracey Drury

Partners on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus are working together to improve healthy opportunities for children and families.

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. received a $700,000 grant to fund its Health Kids, Healthy Communities initiative, a national program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The program focuses on improving opportunities for physical activity and access to affordable healthy foods for children and families through policy and environmental changes in the city.

BNMC is leading the effort with help from other community organizations. The vision for the program was developed with help from more than 100 community members, including local youth, during public brainstorming sessions in August.

Other partners in the effort include the City of Buffalo, Erie County, Massachusetts Avenue Project, Green Options Buffalo, the University at Buffalo School of Architecture & Planning, the Wellness Institute of Greater Buffalo, the Buffalo Public School District, the State Department of Transportation and the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

The program previously received support from RWJF’s Active Living by Design program, leveraging a $200,000 grant into more than $14 million in federal funds for streetscape and infrastructure improvements.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities is a $33 million program and the largest investment to date by RWJF in community-based solutions to childhood obesity. The programs includes 50 communities nationwide and is the cornerstone to the foundation’s $500 million commitment to reverse the country’s childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.