Rhode Island Kids First and Stonyfield Farm are teaming up to replace high-fat, sugary snacks with healthful alternatives to combat childhood obesity and keep schoolchildren alert.

09:46 AM EST on Thursday, March 10, 2005

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

Put down your super-sized doughnuts, your Egg McMuffins and your 64-ounce Big Gulps. Now get up and move.

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers

Florence Snead serves fresh fruit with yogurt yesterday to Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy students Amanda Gomes, Jillian Rivera and Christian Morales as the Providence school unveils the Good2Go program.

Three schools in Rhode Island -- the Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, in Providence, Flat River Middle School, Coventry, and Jenks Junior High School, in Pawtucket -- are opening their doors 30 minutes early so students can exercise, then have healthful breakfasts.

The pilot program is the brainchild of Rhode Island Kids First, a nonprofit group dedicated to healthful childhood nutrition, and Stonyfield Farm, a New Hampshire company that makes organic yogurt.

The idea grew out of a conversation between Dorothy Brayley, who runs Kids First, and Cathleen Toomey, vice president of media relations for Stonyfield Farm. Stonyfield has been working with several Rhode Island schools to replace high-fat, sugary snacks with healthful alternatives. "The schools told me that the big issue is breakfast and exercise," Toomey said at a news conference yesterday at Textron. "This solves the problem of kids being dropped at school early and eating doughnuts and text-messaging friends."

Blue Cross & Blue Shield and Sodexho School Services agreed to share the cost of the project, estimated at $10,000. Blue Cross will develop an exercise program, while Sodexho will prepare the breakfast: yogurt topped with fruit or granola.

The timing of the Good2Go program was fortuitous. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced this week that he wanted to ban the sale of junk food in schools. More than two dozen states are considering similar legislation.

In Rhode Island, two bills would ask every school district to develop plans to reduce obesity and increase exercise.

Some experts are calling childhood obesity a national crisis. Nine million children in the United States are overweight or obese; one of every four children in Rhode Island is overweight.

Nationwide, more than a third of people ages 12 to 21 do not exercise regularly.

Studies have shown that children who skip breakfast have trouble staying alert during the beginning of the school day, while exercise is linked to everything from improved memory to lower rates of tardiness and absenteeism.

Elissa Jelalian, an associate professor of psychiatry at Brown University, will evaluate the six-week program by asking students whether it changed their behavior. Are they eating less and exercising more? Do they have more energy in school? Are they coming to school on time?

"This program is consistent with what we believe education needs to be about," said Rick Landau, Textron's CEO. "We're here to develop students socially, emotionally, physically and academically. By helping kids make good lifestyle choices, we hope it helps them in the classroom."

So far, about 30 Textron teenagers have signed up for the program, which began Monday in the three schools. Yesterday, they showed off their dance moves, including something called stepping. Students at Textron will develop their own dance and aerobic routines under the watchful eye of teachers and local volunteers.

If the program is successful in Rhode Island, Toomey hopes to expand it to other states, possibly next year.

"If we can do it in New England in the winter," she said, "we can do it anywhere."