KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A recent study by the University of Kansas shows that 51 percent of the youth in the Rosedale neighborhood are overweight or obese.
After learning that statistic the Rosedale Ministerial Alliance in Kansas City, Kan., formed the Healthy Kids Initiative.
The are scheduled to hold a kickoff event at the Healthy Kids Community Garden at 40th and Minnie Street Wednesday at 2 p.m. The event is open to the public.
The alliance says it is just first of many that will be planted across Rosedale.
The idea is to get neighborhood kids to help maintain the garden. It will include a fruit tree.
The children and neighbors can then eat from the garden.
A $225,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will fund the gardens.
“The idea is to get kids familiar with where food comes from, access to healthy food, to fresh foods,” says Wendy Wilson, co-director of the Healthy Kids Initiative. “In an urban setting that's really difficult now. It doesn't happen. There aren't grocery stores that kids can walk to. They walk to they walk to the corner mini-marts and get junk food.”
Wilson says there aren’t a lot of sidewalks in the neighborhood. The few they do have are in disrepair.
They hope to change that next so kids can bike and walk safely to school.
