Green Acres: A proposal to provide an intervention within a rural low-income majority African American and Latino community

In the past 30 years, obesity has more than doubled for children ages 2-5, has tripled among children ages 6-11, and more than tripled among 12-19 years; and out of these age groups, rural low-income African American and Latino populations are affected the most. The most accepted method of addressing obesity is through individual or small group physical activity and nutrition but is likely to only produce modest changes of 5% to 10% of initial body weight, and produce minimal long-term success. Increasing evidence shows that a multilevel approach (family, community, schools, and policies) is needed. To address the problem of childhood obesity in a rural African American community in NC, we propose to combine a community participatory approach with a multilevel framework to develop a program called Green Acres.Master of Public Healt