Urban Roots Competitors

Big Green is a national nonprofit dedicated to creating healthy places where kids can learn and grow. Through outdoor learning environments, gardens, and programming, Big Green forges connections between education and health and offers experiences that engage the whole child. Founded in 2011 by Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson to address diet-related health disparities, Big Green has since grown to work in nearly 650 schools in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh, and supports students, teachers, and families through school-based, online, and at-home programming.

The Oliver Foundation was founded by Mrs. William B. Oliver (Cluthe) in 1995 and official programs for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity began in 2004. The Oliver Foundation with Baylor College of Medicine has been successful in obtaining weight loss in elementary age overweight and obese kids in the 7th largest school district in Texas. This was accomplished through an intensive intervention program for two years, following 2nd graders through 3rd grade. The program focused on the CHOICES messages integrating healthy eating habits and physical activity throughout the school day. Teachers and school nurses were trained by Oliver and Baylor on how to integrate healthy messages in daily classroom teaching so that it begins a healthy habit resulting in an environmental and cultural change in those schools. Teachers said the program was fun to do and did not take away from teaching time. In fact, kids were more attentive, learned from the healthy lessons, made healthy food choices, brought healthy snacks and drank more water. Students also took the healthy messages home to their parents. The key was - the schools were ready for a healthy change.

Howard's Healthy Choices (HHC) is a social service agency centrally located in Trenton, NJ and has been in operations since 2011. Annually, we serve through our afterschool and summer programs 60 students, to create an intimate learning environment for students, different then their overcrowded classrooms. Our drop-in services for the entire community on average, addresses the needs of another 70 or more persons. We also partner with several different programs to provide services like grief and bereavement groups; a girl's empowerment group; young boy's mentoring program, physical exercise and nutrition group; and a young adult's preparation for construction training program. Through these partnerships, these programs are facilitated at our site, allowing us to serve another 100 residents of the City of Trenton. HHC also offers 6 or more community events a year to support the building of families and the enhancement of our communities, this increases our service levels by another 300-500 persons. Through our working relationship with the public schools, HHC has found success with improving the academic performance of students we serve, as reported by parents, students, and teachers, while being documented by school report cards.