APHA Receives W.K. Kellogg Grant To Strengthen Role Of Public Health In Agriculture Policy

Main Category: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 31 Aug 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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The American Public Health Association (APHA) recently received a $98,266 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to educate and engage public health and environmental health organizations around critical farm and food policies.

From June 1 through Dec. 31, the grant will allow APHA to increase the public and environmental health communities' roles in understanding, developing and supporting farm and food policies. Additionally, APHA will establish a coalition consisting of its members, state Affiliates and other key public health and consumer organizations to explore obesity prevention strategies, access to healthy, locally grown food and environmental conservation. The project is geared towards educating and engaging underserved communities on these topics.

"Agriculture policy is the foundation upon which our nation's food system is built," said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP (Emeritus), executive director of APHA. "We thank the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for its contribution to APHA that will better enable public health organizations to collaborate and provide a single, unified voice on key farm and food initiatives and environmental conservation activities. With this grant, we will increase awareness of the interrelatedness of agriculture policy and public health and take a proactive approach towards the development of policies that promote a healthy, sustainable food system."

Agriculture policies address many critical public health issues, including food safety, agricultural production, renewable energy, school nutrition standards, the updating of WIC food packages and food stamp nutrition education. The benefits of such policies are undeniable, and there is a growing recognition that with input from the public health community, these policies can enhance the public's health by supporting obesity prevention and environmental conservation efforts.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." To achieve the greatest impact, the foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

For further information, please visit the foundation's Web site at http://www.wkkf.org. The site offers: in-depth information about the foundation's programming interests; information on the foundation's grant application process; a database of current grant recipients; and access to publications that report on foundation-funded projects.

American Public Health Association

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