Obese Native Americans

Six universities have been awarded nearly $4 million in funding by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help fight obesity and improve the health of our nation's children, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today. Secretary Vilsack also announced that USDA is accepting applications for up to $7 million for additional projects next year. This funding is available through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and administered by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

The University of Montana has received $150,000 to design and test the viability of an intervention to improve healthy eating among children in the Flathead Indian reservation; a study has shown that 57 percent of American Indian youth ages 5-19 living in Montana are overweight or obese. Part of the University of Montana's plan is to work with the Salish-Kootenai College to teach students about gardening, accessing healthy foods, and preparing and consuming locally produced foods. The University of New England will promote fruit and vegetable purchases and consumption by families in under-resourced communities, reducing health disparities, improving human nutrition, and preventing unhealthy weight gain among children. Find the complete list of this year's project descriptions on NIFA's reporting website.

Applicants for fiscal year 2016 childhood obesity prevention grant proposals should focus on behavioral and environmental approaches to obesity prevention in children. For application deadlines and other information, see the request for applications.

In honor of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, held this past week, I thought I'd give you some spelling news. According to a map provided by Google, the word Washingtonians misspelled most often was "pneumonia."In the Northwest, "definitely" plagued numerous Oregonians, as did "desert" for Idaho residents.