WASHINGTON — At an event Saturday in Puerto Rico, Walmart announced a $500,000 grant to support a new program aimed at fighting obesity among Hispanic Americans.
The Walmart Foundation’s money will help fund the League of United Latin American Citizens’ initiative, called Latinos Living Healthy: Salud Es Vida, to educate Latino families nationwide on the benefits of healthy eating and physical exercise, supporting small steps toward living healthier lifestyles.
“We’ve partnered because both of us are concerned about doing something to address the plight of obesity in the United States,” said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of LULAC.
Among Mexican-American children nationwide, the obesity rate is close to 43 percent, compared with 37 percent of white children. With the grant from Walmart, LULAC plans to host health fairs and workshops across the United States and Puerto Rico over the next year.
“Especially because Walmart sells food, they feel it’s important to make sure they’ve got a healthy food message, that they’re concerned about the issue of obesity,” Wilkes said. “By partnering with us, they know that they can get to a lot of Latino communities with that special message.”
Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered, is home to the fastest growing Hispanic population in the country. In the past decade, the Latino population in Arkansas increased by 114 percent, according to the U.S. Census.
As the population rises, so does the prevalence of health issues affecting this community.
“We have a growing obesity epidemic in Arkansas, and it is disproportionately affecting communities of color,” said Dr. Creshelle Nash, a medical consultant with the Arkansas Minority Health Commission. “If we don’t address obesity in the Hispanic community, we’re going to continue to have long-term problems.”
Childhood obesity can lead to diabetes, hypertension and heart disease later in life. In Arkansas, more than 47 percent of Hispanic students in kindergarten and grades 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 are considered overweight or obese, according to 2009-10 data from the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.
“We have a growing problem, and with this growing population; we know we’re going to have to address this early on,” Nash said.
The best ways to address the problem include educating individuals on the health risk, encouraging physical activity and making sure the community has healthy food options.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth with a population of 3.7 million, is 99 percent Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Wal-Mart opened its first store there in 1992 and currently has 54 locations across the island.
Walmart said its commitment to Latinos Living Healthy is part of a wider effort the company launched in January. It included a pledge to open about 300 stores by 2016 in food deserts, or places where Americans don’t have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The company is also implementing labels on the front of food packaging to alert customers of nutrition value.
In addition, “we have a focus on giving back to the Arkansas community in a number of ways, and we feel that this will be a way that we can help in our local community just as we do around the country,” said Phillip Keene, a spokesman for Walmart. “We want to make healthier foods more affordable.”
Keene said Walmart’s program and its support of Latinos Living Health aim to “help make folks in the Hispanic community, folks in the Northwest Arkansas community, more empowered to make healthier choices.”
“We know that’s going to make the Northwest Arkansas community even stronger, just like it will across the country,” he said.