Activity Works, an interactive video series for elementary pupils that targets childhood obesity, will be available to classrooms in Newark and Trenton, as well as Philadelphia, with the aid of a grant from Plainsboro-based Novo Nordisk.
The video series, created by North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, has been implemented in 500 classrooms in the new markets since January, and the company hopes to grow that number to more than 1,500 over the next three years.
“Since its inception, our goal every year has been to empower as many children and families through physically-based wellness curricula and programming,” Activity Works CEO Tom Sullivan said in a prepared statement. “We have a long-term goal of being able to provide access to our programming at no charge across the nation, and it is only through partnerships with like-minded corporations such as Novo Nordisk that we will ultimately be able to make that happen.”
Novo Nordisk, the health care company whose U.S. headquarters is in Plainsboro, is focused on diabetes care and other serious, chronic health conditions.
“Diabetes continues to steadily increase, driven by a number of trends, including the prevalence of obesity,” Genevieve Jean-Bart Fadayomi, Novo Nordisk’s associate director, U.S. corporate sustainability & social impact, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Activity Works allows us to bring lessons about healthy lifestyles to children and their families, helping them understand the importance of physical activity to maintain a healthy weight and ultimately contribute to the decline of diabetes in our communities.”
Episodes of Activity Works can be found in more than 4,000 classrooms nationwide.
