In partnership with Tufts University, ChildObesity180 has announced a $1.5 million grant from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation to support its Healthy Kids Out of School initiative in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Healthy Kids Out of School works with the country's leading out-of-school-time organizations to promote nutrition and physical activity as a way of combating childhood obesity. Organizations partnering in the effort include the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the National Council of La Raza, the National Council of Youth Sports, the National 4-H Council, the National Urban League, Pop Warner, US Youth Soccer, and the YMCA of the USA.

Awarded through the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation's Growing Up Healthy initiative, the funds will support development of a Healthy Kids Hub — a Web-based tool designed to encourage children to "drink right, move more, and snack smart" — as well as an evaluation of the initiative itself.

"By supporting the Healthy Kids Out of School initiative, we're training staff and volunteers in non-custodial afterschool programs in the same messages we've brought to afterschool child care centers over the past five years," said Karen Voci, executive director of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation. "Children who participate in scouts, youth soccer and football, 4H, and other club programs will have the same healthy snacks and activities as their classmates who stay at school until their parents finish work."