Schools

$3 Million Grant Targets Overweight District 191 Elementary Students

District 191 will be the focus of a $3 million National Institutes of Health grant looking for better ways to address childhood obesity.

Overweight elementary students in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district will benefit from a new $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

In fall 2014, the University of Minnesota's School of Nursing will begin a five-year study of District 191 schools to determine the best way to address childhood obesity.

"This is a huge benefit for our students and families," Dawn Willson, the district's director of health services, said in a statement. "Students will receive ongoing support to make healthy changes in their lives."

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The nine-month, voluntary after-school program will include small group sessions for students, a support group for parents and one-on-one coaching sessions with the school nurse, parent and child.

The study builds on work U of M proffessor Martha Kubik has been doing in District 191 since the 2004-5 school year, when she first calculated a school-based body mass index using height and weight measurements of students.

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"It tells us the health of our students and the overall health of our school community," Bernadette Bien, a District 191 school nurse, told the Pioneer Press. ""We are always teaching students healthy behaviors."

The U of M hopes to find 200 students willing to participate with their families in the new study.

"We are very excited to participate in this new program," Wilson told the paper. "It's the next natural step to the screening we already have in place."


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