Big Health Fund Pledges $500-Million to Fight Obesity

By Nicole Lewis

In the hopes of speeding up efforts to fight the growing problem of childhood obesity, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in Princeton, N.J., has pledged $500-million over five years to help children and their families learn to eat healthier foods, make those foods more accessible, and increase their physical activity.

"It's clear that this is one of the largest, if not the largest, threat to our nation currently and it's preventable," says Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, the foundation's president. "If we can reverse the epidemic where it begins, in childhood, then the payoff for the country is just enormous."

The commitment is one of the biggest any American foundation has guaranteed to a single cause, although other foundations may have ended up spending more over time to deal with other major issues.

The percentage of overweight children ages 6 to 19 has more than tripled in the past 30 years, according to results from a 2003-4 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta. Nearly 19 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight, the centers said, as are 17 percent of children ages 12 to 19. In the centers' 2006 outline of health trends in America, childhood obesity was cited as increasing the risk that more Americans would face high cholesterol, liver abnormalities, diabetes, and weight problems as adults.

The foundation expects that if its grants achieve their intended goals, the percentage of overweight children in the United States would begin to decrease by 2015.

Size of Commitment

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is one of the wealthiest grant makers in the United States, with assets of $9.8-billion in 2006, an increase of 4.6 percent from 2005.

Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey says the $500-million for obesity will represent additional spending from the foundation's endowment, and will not be made at the expense of its other grant-making programs, such as its efforts to expand health-insurance coverage among Americans and fight drug abuse.

"We picked a number that we think is commensurate with the size of the problem and a number that makes a statement about our long-term commitment," says Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey. "Millions and millions of promising young lives are being redirected away from health and a hopeful future to disease and early death."

While the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's $500-million commitment to combat childhood obesity is one of the largest made for a single cause, it is not the biggest in history. Among other major commitments made by the nation's big foundations:

• The Ford Foundation in 1955 allocated $260-million — or nearly $2-billion in current dollars — to help augment the salaries of faculty members across the United States.
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, in 1999 pledged $1-billion to start a college-scholarship program for low-income minority students, administered by the United Negro College Fund, in Fairfax, Va. In 2005, the Gates Foundation committed $750-million to the Vaccine Fund (now known as the GAVI Fund) to accelerate the use of vaccines in developing countries.
• The Rockefeller Foundation, in New York, in 1986 allocated up to $300-million — or $563-million in today's dollars — to create the International Program to Support Science-Based Development, which sought to promote the equitable, efficient use of scientific and technological innovations in developing countries.
• The Annenberg Foundation, in Radnor, Pa., in 1993 committed $500-million — $711-million in today's dollars — to improve public schools across the country.

Making 'Larger Bets'

For the past three years, childhood obesity has been a major grant-making priority for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has spent $80-million on the cause since 2003.

Past grants include $205,112 to study how different types of playground equipment affects how long children play and how much exercise they get from each activity, and $265,944 to promote the use of local produce and healthy eating in Austin, Tex., schools.

The foundation plans to stay its course of focusing on how schools as well as towns and cities can help children eat better and be more active, says Kathryn Thomas, a senior communications officer at the foundation.

However, some of the new money might also be used to explore new tactics, such as how to use public-service announcements or other communications tools to broadcast the importance of good nutrition and exercise, says Ms. Thomas.

The foundation is also considering expanding its grants to groups working to encourage supermarkets to open in poor neighborhoods, so residents have easy access to fruits and vegetables, as well as grants that promote healthy eating among schoolteachers and other people who work in schools, thereby providing students with role models.

The new effort will make grants to organizations that serve children and teenagers ages 3 to 18; in the past, the foundation focused mainly on groups aiding children ages 3 to 12.

Thomas H. Kean, the foundation's chairman and the former governor of New Jersey, says the foundation will continue to look for other health causes that would benefit from sizable commitments.

"As a board, we have asked the staff to look for larger bets with greater consequences," he says. "If five years from now, the research shows something else is the biggest problem affecting us, then you'll see the foundation make a big commitment in that area."

Growing Interest Among Other Groups

In recent years, nonprofit groups and several other grant makers have also stepped up efforts to fight childhood obesity.

Since 2000, the California Endowment, in Los Angeles, has committed $38-million to the cause, including a $26-million grant-making program that seeks to improve opportunities for school-age children in six poor towns and cities to eat healthy meals and snacks and enforce physical-education requirements during school, as well as advocate for safe parks.

In 2005, the William J. Clinton Foundation, in Little Rock, Ark., and the American Heart Association, in Dallas, formed the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which has been urging schools and restaurants to offer healthier meal and snack options. The group's co-chairman is Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas, and one of its supporters is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Interest is also growing among the public: In a 2005 opinion poll by the Harvard School of Public Health, in Cambridge, Mass., three-fourths of Americans cited obesity as an "extremely" or "very" serious health threat. And in January, about 1,700 people — including educators, business executives, public-health officials, and government leaders — attended the four-day California Childhood Obesity Conference, in Anaheim. Attendance at the conference, which takes place every other year, has nearly doubled since it began in 2001.

Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey says a network of groups, including government, corporations, schools, and families themselves, as well as other donors, will be needed to complement the Johnson Foundation's $500-million effort.

"It seems like a lot of money but it will not get the job done unless we get commitments from others in society," she says. "The urgency of this problem simply cannot wait."

The foundation's 2006 annual report has a detailed message from Ms. Lavizzo-Mourey explaining the genesis and purpose of its $500-million childhood obesity effort. The report is available on the foundation's Web site.

Marty Michaels contributed to this article.