Research

Fuel Your Brain, Not Your Belly Proposal

Submitted to: The Gates Foundation

April 11, 2014 Authored by: Shannon Donovan

Table o

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 2 Proposal Description ........................................................................................................... 2 The Effect of Obesity on the Body ..................................................................................... 4 Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 6 Smoothie Days .................................................................................................................... 7 Educational Days ................................................................................................................ 8 Take Home Packets............................................................................................................. 8 Budget ................................................................................................................................. 8 Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Program ............................................................................ 9 How the Gates Foundation Can Relate ............................................................................. 10 References ......................................................................................................................... 11

Executive Summary

Fuel Your Brain, Not Your Belly is a program that has been developed in hopes

of reducing rates of obesity. With Michigan having one of the highest rates of obesity in

the United States, it is time to take charge and implement a program that will reduce this

life threatening epidemic. Obesity stems from a lack of knowledge in nutrition and

exercise. This program will involve building a foundation for the children within their

schools in the West Bloomfield School District that will educate them on how to live a

long, healthy life. If children are taught from a young age about how to stay healthy and

fuel their brains, there is no doubt that we can reduce rates of obesity. We are requesting a grant in the amount of $50,000 from The Gates Foundation to assist in funding the startup costs of our venture. These startup costs include the costs of local produce, nutrition days, raising awareness, and Fuel Your Brain goody bags which include helpful take home information for the children.

Proposal Description

Children that grow up with a lack of knowledge in nutrition and exercises to stay

healthy, tend to have a greater chance of becoming obese. When a child lacks knowledge

of proper nutrition and a steady exercise routine, they are not only affecting their physical appearance. The inside of their bodies are significantly affected. Obesity decreases an

individual’s life expectancy, reduces attention span and brain function, and increases

chances of diabetes, eating disorders, psychological disorders, heart disease, and

depression.

Our program would give the West Bloomfield School District the opportunity to

lower rates of obesity by improving the student population’s knowledge on nutrition and

exercise. In order for this program to be successful, we would need support of the West

Bloomfield population and the willingness from the school district to maintain this

program throughout the academic year.

The Fuel Your Brain program is committed to a two-step method:

Step One

™ Creating relationships with local farmers ™ Arranging Fuel Your Brain day each semester for West Bloomfield Schools ™ Recruiting individuals for the team ™ Impacting students enough to lower rates of obesity ™ Creating Fuel Your Brain take home bags for students

Step Two

™ Maintaining the program within the West Bloomfield School District ™ Expanding to other school districts ™ Growing the size of the company’s team We are looking for assistance in the first step of our program. That would include all

of the startup costs for the first year. Once the program has been initiated and proven to be a success, we hope to gain donations and assistance in the local areas that we will be

affecting.

The Effect of Obesity on the Body

The outcomes associated with obesity are never ending. Obesity is a massive

concern in the United States. This disease can typically be avoided by implementing the

knowledge into individuals while they’re young. This will create a new generation of

children who can take the knowledge they have home with them and not only affect themselves, but their family as well. When a child lacks nutrition and exercise, their

physical and mental capabilities diminish.

The above figure depicts the percent of population that is obese per state in 2012.

This figure was taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Notice, that Michigan is highlighted in orange which represents our population as being

between 30% and 35% obese. This means that nearly one-third of Michigan’s population

is obese. These numbers could drop significantly if our program was implemented.

An article entitled The Role of Nutrition in Children’s Learning and their

Behaviors, the author Seun Idowu discussed the concerns about the effects of poor

nutrition on children. Seun Idowu stated that, “Children who are fed on store bought

cookies, pies, rolls, and processed food generally, instead of fresh fish, meats, vegetables,

fruits and whole grains will undoubtedly develop nutritional deficiencies. It's not hard to

eat real food, fish, vegetables, fruits, lean fats and whole grains. It is important to remember that our brains biochemistry is determined by food we eat far more than other

organs of the body. Nutrition clearly has significant effects on brain function.” (Idowu,

2013)

Children need a healthy upbringing in order to have a positive relation with

school and their future. This program would implement such changes to educate children

from K-12 so that they can learn various ways to eat healthy, different exercises to stay in

shape, and develop a routine that they can follow throughout growing up. Without implementing these programs, children will continue to have that lack of knowledge and

guide to success. Obesity leads to many of the following complications:

™ ADHD

™ Diabetes

™ Heart Disease

™ Psychological Disorders ™ Depression ™ Fatigue ™ Decreased learning in school setting

The above list is only a brief look into how obesity will affect 16 perfect of the

current children and teen population who are obese. (Aloe, 2010) We need this program so that we can change the lives of many children and create a healthier young generation.

Objectives

The intention of our program is to simply target the local school district in West

Bloomfield and start on a small scale. Once success is proven in one district, we can

expand to others. We intend for our program to visit the schools once a semester or twice

in the academic school year. The first Fuel Your Brain Day of the year would of course be at the beginning of the school year with the purpose of getting everyone excited to

begin this healthy journey.

In the West Bloomfield School District, they are known to have certain days

where children have bake sales or bagel days. Every child can bring money in and pay for

these unhealthy items. The great thing about our program is that we will substitute such

days for more healthy and fun products; and it will be free. When I surveyed a pool of 25

parents with children in the West Bloomfield Schools, I received feedback which favored

our program. They said that they would like to see their children getting better nutrition while in school and also, information that will give them the tools to stay healthy. The

chart below displays the numerical results from the survey.

Survey of Program Changes

25 20 15 10 5 0 Program Changes No Undecided Yes

Smoothie Days

The smoothie days would be designed to show children that starting off their day

can be fun and healthy. The bagel days would either be eliminated or decrease in

frequency and smoothie days would become the new norm. All of the products that

would go into making these smoothies would be fresh produce, milk, yogurt, etc. Each and every product would be bought locally so that we can support our local businesses.

These days would show the schools how to run such a day so that they can continue the smoothie days on a monthly basis even when we are not holding our Fuel Your Brain

days.

These smoothies are filled with vitamins and antioxidants. The children would be

given an array of fruit and can pick up to three different fruits they want in their smoothie. We then would blend their smoothie and get them started on the right track for

the rest of the day and semester.

Educational Days

Also known as the Fuel Your Brain days, these are days in which we have an

assembly for the entire school. This assembly will last approximately 2-3 hours. It will go over everything from how to make eating healthy fun to how to stay active and in shape.

Children need a reason to eat healthy and stay in shape. Granted, some children love healthy food and others play sports. But when children do not, they need a reason for

such changes and we are the ones who will give them those changes.

Our educational days will also teach the staff of the schools pertinent information

to retain in order to keep our program alive. The school staff has a very large role in the

success of these children which is why we want to impact them as well.

Take Home Packets

In essence, these packets are goody bags to send home with the children. It

contains a Fuel Your Brain brochure, information on healthy foods, proper breakfasts to

start the day, and a log book that keeps track of the child’s food intake and activity. All of

this information will be brought home to their families where they can then discuss in further what they have learned. These take home packets are easy ways to impact others

outside of school.

Budget

Our request of $50,000 will hold much more value than just the dollar amount.

Granted, the amount we are requesting is of a decent amount, however, that money will

be the start of an amazing and impactful program.

Our budget consists of buying fruit for the Smoothie Days, creating take home

bags for the students, and creating a team to go from school to school on the Fuel Your

Brain days. The West Bloomfield School District has approximately 6300 students

throughout K-12. Based on this most recent number, I was able to calculate some of the

following costs.

With the Smoothie Days, each child will be able to choose three fruits for their

smoothie. Each smoothie would also contain milk and yogurt. This would result in each smoothie costing approximately $2.50/student, totaling $15,750 per semester and $31,500 annually. This would leave us with a remainder of $18,500 to spend on the goody bags and educational information. With a savvy team, we can be sure to delegate the remainder of those costs to the educational bags and in school presentations.

The reason that the smoothies take up a great amount of the sum is because we are

implementing these days to give the children an opportunity to try healthy options. They

won’t willingly start eating healthier if they don’t know what healthy tastes like. Healthy

foods can be as exciting to eat as the typical bagel or chips, but they have to learn that

through providing them with these experiences.

Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Program

Michelle Obama has created a nationwide program that was designed to help raise

a healthier generation of kids. She travels around the country to many different schools and motivates the children and adults to join the movement. As the First Lady said

herself, "In the end, as First Lady, this isn’t just a policy issue for me. This is a passion.

This is my mission. I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the

way a generation of kids thinks about food and nutrition." (Obama)

Just like our Fuel Your Brain, Not Your Belly program, Michelle has committed

herself to this nationwide issue. She does not want to see the children grow up unhealthy,

sick, and out of shape. We want a nation filled with bright, healthy, growing and

motivated young individuals.

How the Gates Foundation Can Relate

While investigating the Gates Foundation website, I made note that there were a

handful of awarded grants to fund other topics of obesity. However, I did not come across

many that were specifically aimed toward children in educational districts in the United

States. One that caught my eye was an awarded grant of nearly $40,000 for the University of Memphis. They used this money to determine if stunting and impaired growth could be distinguished by obesity models.

Knowing that you guys have awarded grants to topics of obesity before gives me

hope that our program will be of interest to you. On the flip side, being that there are not

an excess of awarded grants for obesity projects in the United States, I believe that our

program would be a great project for you to invest in. Our drive to make a change is

immense and we would love the opportunity to have The Gates Foundation as the reason

that we could start this program.

References

Idowu, S. (2013, December 16). The role of nutrition in children's learning and their

behaviors. Retrieved from http://www.carmma.org/update/role-nutrition

children’s-learning-and-their-behaviours-0

Aloe, L. (2010, December). Battling childhood obesity: How to keep your kids trim and

healthy. Retrieved from http://www.childrensdmc.org/?id=1767&sid=1

University of memphis. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We

Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2013/10/OPP1100553

Adult obesity facts. (2014, March 28). Retrieved from

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Obama, M. (n.d.). About let's move!. Retrieved from http://www.letsmove.gov/about