Walk-A-Thon for Low-Income Kids Promotes Good Health

L.A. Care, Students, Parents and Teachers united to fight obesity

Los Angeles – L.A. Care Health Plan is helping 4th and 5th grade students, teachers and parents from the Compton Unified School District fight childhood obesity and encourage fun, physical activity. On Saturday, April 25, 2009, kids and parents will participate in a celebration as part of the KID HEALTHY campaign, a local campaign in the public schools aimed at keeping Southern California kids fit and healthy. The celebration will be held at L.A. Care’s Family Resource Center from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at 3180 E. Imperial Highway in Lynwood.

The KID HEALTHY coalition partners include L.A. Care Health Plan, the Network for a Healthy California, the Children’s Power Play! Campaign, the KID HEALTHY—Steps for a Healthy Living Campaign, the YMCA of Orange County and ABC 7. The campaign was founded in 2003 by ABC7 along other founding sponsors such as Kaiser Permanente, Albertsons/Savon, Macy’s and CalOptima to take on the growing problem of childhood obesity. For the past month, 100,000 children in schools across Southern California have been keeping track of their steps with their own pedometers, logging their daily physical activity, and learning about nutrition and healthy eating habits.

The KID HEALTHY Celebration will start with a walk-a-thon for children. Then, parents and their children will be able to visit different booths offering information about free exercise and nutrition classes and see cooking and kids Pilates demonstrations. Families will also be able to eat healthy snacks and win many prizes by participating in a variety of fun activities. This celebration will end with a recognition ceremony for children who have successfully completed the KID HEALTHY program.

L.A. Care’s KID HEALTHY Celebration is intended to address the epidemic of childhood obesity and promote physical activity among children in Los Angeles County. Nearly a third of African-American and Latino children are overweight, and many are being diagnosed at puberty with type 2 diabetes, which used to be an exclusively adult disease.

“The evidence is clear that if we limit childhood obesity and increase awareness now, we can reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke among other chronic illnesses as they become adults,” says Dr. Richard Seidman, Senior Medical Director at L.A. Care.

The Los Angeles County (LAC) Department of Public Health reported that 22.9% of children are obese and an additional 19.4% of children are overweight. In addition, the LAC Department of Health Services reported that South Service Planning Area 6 (SPA6), which includes Los Angeles, Lynwood and Compton, has the highest percentage (25.5%) of overweight children, the highest percentage of people living below the Federal Poverty Level (28%) and the highest percentage of children (35%) watching three or more hours of television per day among Los Angeles Service Planning Areas.

L.A. Care has sponsored the KID HEALTHY – Steps for a Healthy Living campaign for the past three years, and has found very promising results that provide evidence to support that this collaborative effort is successful in changing behavior. In fact, participating parents said they are buying more fruits and vegetables and fewer soft drinks following their child’s participation in the KID HEALTHY campaign.

Since early 2000, L.A. Care has been committed to making a significant investment in the fight against obesity. L.A. Care’s Family Resource Center (FRC) in Lynwood and the soon-to-open FRC in Inglewood offer free nutrition and exercise classes as well as Weight Watchers®, cardio kickboxing, Pilates and salsa dance aerobics classes among others, in order to help children and their families stay healthy.

About L.A. Care Health Plan
L.A. Care Health Plan (Local Initiative Health Authority of Los Angeles County) is a public entity and community-accountable health plan serving residents of Los Angeles County through a variety of programs including L.A. Care Covered™, Medi-Cal, L.A. Care’s Healthy Kids, L.A. Care Health Plan Medicare Advantage HMO SNP, and PASC-SEIU Homecare Workers Health Care Plan. L.A. Care is a leader in developing new programs through innovative partnerships designed to provide health coverage to vulnerable populations and to support the safety net. With more than one million members, L.A. Care is the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan.