Our Mission Is Urgent

Because of changes in diet and lifestyle, kids are increasingly at risk for diseases that can significantly diminish the quality, productivity, and length of their lives.

• In New York City, 43 percent of elementary-school children are overweight or obese.


• An obese 4-year-old has a 20% chance of becoming an obese adult, and an obese teenager has up to an 80% chance of becoming an obese adult.


• Type 2 diabetes is expected to afflict one in three children born in 2000 due to poor diet and lack of physical activity.


• Health-care expenses and productivity losses related to obesity problems cost Americans more than $100 billion annually.


• Currently, obesity-related illnesses cause some 300,000 deaths a year. Inactivity and poor diet will soon overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.