Press Releases: Northern California
August 4, 2010
Kaiser Permanente Grants Help Kids Have a Healthy and Safe Summer
Northern California Community Benefit programs support young people and families in need
OAKLAND, Calif. — Summer should be fun and carefree for kids — lots of outdoor activity and time with friends and family. But for some young people, time off from school can also mean the lack of safe places to play, healthy meals to eat and opportunities to learn and grow.
Kaiser Permanente, through its Northern California Community Benefit program, has awarded a number of grants to support programs designed to help kids have a healthy and safe summer.
“These grants are just a few of the ways Kaiser Permanente is working to make improvements in our communities,” said Jean Nudelman, director of Community Benefit for Kaiser Permanente Northern California. “Our community investments cover many areas — from prevention of chronic disease and health promotion to supporting the safety net of health and social services. During a time of great economic hardship, it is even more imperative to us that we help the children and families of our communities.”
The following Northern California organizations were awarded grants to promote healthy and safe activities this summer and throughout the year:
- With one in eight Americans now receiving food stamps, fresh fruit and vegetables might seem out of reach for families facing hard times. Kaiser Permanente’s $80,000 grant to Fresh Approach for their Farmers Market Food Stamp Incentive Program helps put seasonal produce in the hands of 3,000 Northern California families by giving them an extra $5 in tokens if they spend $10 in food stamps at local farmers’ markets. Fresh Approach is also using its Kaiser Permanente grant to offer Cooking and Food Budgeting Education classes for hundreds of low-income families, providing recipes, tips and groceries.
- Well-balanced summer programs provide opportunities for children to be active as well as keep up their academics, so they can avoid the “summer slide” and weight gain often associated with three months out of the classroom. A $75,000 grant to the Bay Area Partnership for Children and Youth for its Summer Learning and Wellness Initiative will help raise awareness and increase opportunities for summer enrichment programs, particularly in low-income communities.
- For many low-income children, summer means the end of free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches they receive at school, a crucial part of their daily nutrition. A $15,000 grant to the City of Oakland’s Summer Food Service Program helps supplement the federal summer lunch program to deliver approximately 100,000 lunches to nearly 15,000 kids at 68 sites.
- A $24,500 grant has been awarded to the Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative for the 2010 Soda Free Summer/Re-Think Your Drink campaign. The average person consumes more than 100 pounds of sugar each year, and a single soda contains 17 teaspoons of sugar. With obesity on the rise and 40 percent of children ages 2–11 consuming a soda or sweetened drink every day, it’s important to teach good habits at an early age. Since the Soda Free Summer campaign began a few years ago, thousands of youngsters and adults have made a commitment to good health by reducing or eliminating sweetened beverages and high-sugar foods.
- Youngsters will thrive in their neighborhoods only if they and their families believe it's safe to go outside to play. Kaiser Permanente awarded a $24,500 grant to the National League of Cities Institute to support its efforts around violence prevention, including developing and implementing successful policies and practices that connect prevention, intervention and enforcement in 13 California cities. Results of this program, the first of its kind, will be shared with other cities across the state and nationwide.
- On a statewide level, the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness received a $90,000 grant, shared with Kaiser Permanente Southern California, to promote healthy nutrition, physical activity and access to healthy foods in California’s schools and workplaces.
Overall, Kaiser Permanente plans to invest more than $650 million this year in programs and services that benefit communities across Northern California — contributing funding, clinical expertise and organizational resources to:
- Increase access to health care and health coverage for those in need.
- Support essential health and human services, as well as the safety net of community clinics, public hospitals and health systems.
- Advance prevention for serious public health issues, including violence and obesity.
For more information on Kaiser Permanente Northern California Community Benefit, please visit www.kp.org/communitybenefit/ncal.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.6 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to www.kp.org/newscenter.
