Baltimore-based University of Maryland School of Medicine will assist teachers, parents and students in confronting childhood obesity through a $5 million federal grant, The Baltimore Sun reports.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture funds will be deployed to help create federally-required wellness policies at area schools. Nearly 8 percent of Baltimore middle schools were denoted slightly or very overweight in the CDC's 2013 Youth Risk Factor Behavior Survey, according to the report. In addition, 34.4 percent of high school students in Baltimore were obese or overweight in 2015, according to CDC data.
"It really helps them feel like they have more buy-in when they come up with the ideas," Erin Hager, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told The Baltimore Sun. "Having students involved in the health promoting decisions can be very important."