Hawaiian Gardens Fights Against Child Obesity

Though Hawaiian Gardens is Los Angeles County's smallest city, it houses a large problem: of the city's children, 33 percent have been diagnosed with obesity or are classified as overweight.

These conditions put the city's kids at risk of detrimental illnesses when they are older, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

However, Tri-City Regional Medical Center, ABC Unified, and The City of Hawaiian Gardens are partnering to launch Activate Hawaiian Gardens, a new program aiming to combat this pressing issue.

Created by Alexander Khananashvili, Activate Hawaiian Gardens is being integrated in the curriculum of four elementary schools in the city. Each week students and their parents engage in discussion that promotes healthy eating, exercise, and improved communication about health issues.

This program not only teaches children how to live healthy, but also educates parents on how to deal with behavioral issues related to diet and to establish that better nutrition is key to affecting long-term change.

Activate Hawaiian Gardens is a program that echoes a larger movement to end child obesity, an "epidemic" that is sweeping the U.S.

One in three U.S. children are overweight or obese, and there is overwhelming public support to reverse this statistic.

According to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs research poll that surveyed more than 1,000 adults, 84 percent support requiring more physical activity in schools, while 83 percent favor government providing people with nutritional guidelines and information about diet and exercise. Seventy percent favor having restaurants put calorie counts on menus, and 75 percent consider overweightness and obesity a serious problem in this country.

The "Let's Move" campaign, spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama, aims to influence policymakers to set healthier regulatory standards in the food industry and to spread awareness of the issue of childhood obesity.

Its influence has affected the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents some of the country's biggest corporations including General Mills and Kellogg's, and the American Beverage Association, which represents Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, decision to put calorie labels and nutritional facts in the fronts of their food products.