Consider this:  25% of Minnesota children are overweight and within United Way’s 9-county area, an estimated 48% of children at 200% of poverty are obese.

Childhood obesity is a serious problem in Minnesota, but with the help of our many community partners, Greater Twin Cities United Way is promoting healthier lifestyles to low-income children and their families. 

Over the past four years, United Way has invested $1.1 million annually to help prevent and reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes through the Health Impact’s Healthy Behaviors goal area. In addition to our multi-year funding commitments, Healthy Behaviors has provided support to new and innovative programming ideas and community partnerships designed for broader community involvement including convening a group of grantees and experts in the field of obesity to share best-practices and creative prevention strategies to transform this public health epidemic.

Check out the Taking Steps Together Success Stories below on the Health Community page and hear about families who are trading Big Macs for broccoli and exercise! To learn more about United Way’s obesity prevention work, please contact me at xiongt@unitedwaytwincities.org or 612.340.7628.

ThaoMee Xiong, Contributor
Associate Program Manager
United Way