Childhood obesity has been a problem for millions of Americans regardless of religion, gender and demographics. This epidemic has ultimately led to a twenty-five percent of children in the US becoming classified as overweight and 11% being classified as obese. With such extreme numbers across the United States it hard to speculate the state of California will be any different. When it comes to the State of California and the epidemic of childhood obesity, according to The States Obesity, in California 31.2% of children ranging from 10-17 years are obese based off their combined overweight and obesity rate completed in 2016(https://stateofobesity.org/states/ca). Furthermore, the increasing epidemic of childhood obesity can be equated to some …show more content…
This decline can be linked to the change in culture brought about by Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser Permanente is best known for its healthcare providers and has been putting programs in place for children in the Southern California since 2004. Kaiser first started a program called HEAL Zone, which stands for Healthy Eating, Active Living. This program works with local communities to establish bike paths, walking routes, and healthy food selection in communities. The HEAL Zone program takes it another step and ensures parks are clean and safe for families to use and build up as well as instituting after-school programs for children and teens. Kaiser has even teamed up with other national organizations such as the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and the National Parent Teacher Association to create an interactive and competitive trackable online websites which allow kids to track their step and progress encouraging children to walk to school and compete with friends. This partnership with other organization also provides schools with tools for healthy fundraisers, getting away for the brownie and cookie bake sales. Just like any other good business adventure Kaiser does not help the communities and doesn’t expect to gain anything from