Cooking Light Partnership

Cooking Light Partners with Healthy Kids Challenge To Provide Healthy Habits for America’s Youth

Birmingham, ALA -- Healthy Kids Challenge (HKC), the nation's leading school-based health initiative, and Cooking Light, the world's largest and most popular healthy living magazine, have joined forces in a unique partnership to encourage children and their families to make healthful eating and physical activity a lifetime habit.

The extended partnership between Cooking Light and HKC grew out of a successful pilot program, which included in-school programs and educational programming at a series of community events.

Healthy Kids Challenge's flexible, "start where you are" program provides creative ideas and resources for making healthy living fun and easy. HKC targets three actions for ongoing change: building skills for making healthy eating and physical activity choices; increasing opportunities to make healthy choices; and linking schools, programs, communities, families, and kids in partnerships. The credibility and wide reach of Cooking Light, through its monthly publication, active web site and ongoing programs, plus its database of thousands of kitchen-tested recipes, provide additional resources and opportunities for the program to grow and affect more Americans.

This long-term partnership comes at a pivotal time:

• Obesity among children has reached epidemic proportions, with an estimated 8.8 million children and adolescents ages 6-19 considered overweight or obese, which translates to 1 in 5 children being overweight.
• As funding in schools is cut across the country, time for physical activity, physical education, recess, and intramural and competitive sports programs are hit hard, providing fewer opportunities for children.
• Schools find it challenging with limited time, staff, and budgets to provide healthy school meals, compete with outside vendors, and provide sufficient healthy eating education.

“The collaboration between Cooking Light and Healthy Kids Challenge allows us to make an impact in teaching healthy lifestyle habits at an early age, through school programs, public awareness campaigns and educational seminars,” said Chris Allen, Publisher. “We are pleased to take a leading role in this important initiative.”

“The obesity problem in America did not happen overnight, and the “fix” is not easy. Through a strong national partnership with Cooking Light, we are able to offer hope and positive results to kids and families through simple, fun and achievable solutions. We challenge individuals, families, schools, corporations, and communities to join us in this cause,” said Vickie L. James, registered, licensed dietitian (RD) and Director of Healthy Kids Challenge. “ Our goal is healthy kids and families by 2010.”

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Founded in 1987, Cooking Light is the largest food and fitness magazine in the country, reaching more than 10 million consumers. The magazine is published by Birmingham-based Southern Progress Corporation, a subsidiary of Time Inc. Since its inception, the magazine has consistently achieved record-breaking advertising and circulation growth. The Cooking Light Web site, CookingLight.com, attracts nearly a million unique visitors monthly.

From its origin with Cooking Light as a pilot program in 1998, Healthy Kids Challenge has grown to become an independent, national non-profit initiative. Its mission is to use every day ways to guide schools, communities, and programs in creating solutions to help kids and families C.H.A.N.G.E - Connect Health And Needs, Get Excited! Based in Kansas, and led by two registered dietitians, the award-winning Healthy Kids Challenge has most recently received the American Dietetic Association’s 2003-04 Anita Owen Award for Most Innovative Educational Program for the Public.