Healthy U

Since 1914, the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri (JLKCMO) has been making a difference in the Kansas City community by donating more than $15.7 million and over 2.3 million hours of volunteer time. League members research areas of need in the Kansas City area and educate the membership and the community about those issues. In 2010, the League began the first year of a five-year commitment to Children's Nutrition & Fitness with a goal of decreasing the impact of childhood obesity.

Junior League established Healthy U, the Signature Project that includes several layers of programming focused on nutrition, access to healthy food, making healthy choices, eating on a budget and fitness programming - all focused on building a healthier Kansas City community. The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri also collaborates with many other community organizations that are taking on the challenge of helping kids become healthier; Harvesters and University Academy were the main partners in this program.

Through the League's Healthy U program, the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri has adopted University Academy, a K-12 college preparatory public charter academy that emphasizes college preparation, career development, community service and leadership. The signature project brings layers of programming focused through one school community. The Junior League's programs focus on fighting food insecurity, student nutrition education, parent nutrition and cooking education, obesity prevention programming and fitness programming at all levels of the University Academy.

JLKCMO members volunteered over 5,640 hours and contributed over $308,880 for the following components of this signature project:

-BackSnack Program for University Academy for Fighting Food Insecurity: Providing 150 students with the BackSnack program through Harvesters, with supplemental materials provided to all Lower School students through the school year.

-Making Healthy Food Choices with Teen Eats: Partnering with Harvesters to educate 80 middle school students through a six-week cooking and nutrition program each year.

-Family Healthy Food Education with Family Dinners: Developing classes for families to participate in the cooking and nutrition program through Harvesters Wednesday evenings at University Academy. The League provides family dinner to all participants on a weekly basis during the program.

-Healthy Food Education with Community Garden: Maintaining a community garden on the grounds of University Academy.

-Healthy Lifestyle Programming with Fitness & Exercise Programming: Providing innovative fitness programming to the students of University Academy, including completion of a walking trail and field trips to Sporting KC and the Chiefs Sports Lab.

-Healthy Programming Integration with Classroom Adoption Program: Adopting lower school classrooms in conjunction with the Junior League's new member classes.

The goal of Healthy U is to work with several community groups to provide healthy snacks as well as education on nutrition and fitness to students and their families at University Academy.

The percentage of screened students who were overweight fell from 45.9% in the 2011-2012 school year to 36.9% in the 2011-2012 school year. Over 75% of participants in both Teen Eats and Family Dinners demonstrated a positive behavior change.

Over the past five years, the League helped distribute 34,760 BackSnacks with over 129,000 pounds of food. For the children that received the BackSnacks, the cumulative average discipline incident rate over the five years of Healthy U remained well below the UA average, with only 1.3 incidents recorded per child per year, which is one full incident fewer than average according to the Missouri Department of Education. Teen Eats had 290 participants of whom over 75% demonstrated a behavior change. Family Dinners had 334 participants with over 1,400 exposures to healthy meals and nutrition and fitness knowledge and over 91% having a behavior change. Among 50 students screened, the percentage who were overweight fell from 45.9% in the 2010-2011 school year to 36.9% in the 2011-2012 year, said University Academy Superintendent Tony Kline.