MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) and the Jared Foundation announced plans to work toward expanding a program that addresses chronic weight and obesity issues among children living in the region.
“We are what we eat and the United States is facing a widely-documented crisis and epidemic,” said Jim Murren, Chairman & CEO of MGM Resorts International at the announcement of the expansion of the Coordinated Approach to Childhood Health in Las Vegas.
“CATCH transforms a child’s environment, culture and society by coordinating child health efforts across all aspects of the educational experience: classroom, food services, physical education, and family. CATCH adds healthy eating and physical activity to the school environment and drives the message home to parents through family and community outreach,” said Jared Fogle, a healthy eating advocate and spokesperson for SUBWAY? restaurants.
Murren and Fogle announced a fundraising campaign of $235,000. MGM Resorts International has donated an initial $25,000 to help broaden the program.
CATCH has been recognized and recommended by the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation among other organizations. It focuses on addressing the issues of childhood obesity by transforming a child’s environment by coordinating child health efforts across all aspects of the educational experience: classroom, food services, physical education, and family.
CATCH has been implemented in 132 after-school sites in Southern Nevada since 2010, serving 7000 children daily with physical activity and nutrition lessons. A federal obesity prevention grant allowed Southern Nevada Health District to bring CATCH training and programming to four parks and recreation departments and after school program sites in Boulder City, North Las Vegas, the Cities of Las Vegas and Henderson, and the YMCA of Southern Nevada.
Source: MGM Resorts