Can After-School Health Program Help Kids Be More Active?
Eleven-year-old David Barriga knows he needs to lose a few pounds. “It’s not healthy,” he admits. But the Andrew Briscoe Elementary School fifth-grader is already taking steps to be more active and eat better. On Wednesday and Friday afternoons, he and nearly two dozen of his classmates are bused after school to nearby Mason Park to play soccer and participate in other physical activities. “I love it,” he says. “If it wasn’t for this, I would be at home eating chips and watching television or playing video games.” Briscoe Elementary School fifth-grader David Barriga plays goalie in an after-school soccer game made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Other HISD campuses destined to benefit from the $360,000 grant are Burrus and Young Elementary Schools. Barriga is not alone. According to recent research, an alarming 27 percent of Houston’s fourth-grade children are classified as obese and an additional 19 percent are classified as overweight. HISD is teaming up
