Editor:
Healthy Kids Healthy Communities, a New Mexico Department of Health program that makes healthy eating and physical activity an easy choice for children and families, is grateful to everyone who helped us measure the heights and weights of third-graders and kindergartners this fall.
Our partnership with schools enables us to collect children’s body mass index so we can better understand the extent of childhood obesity in New Mexico and effectively guide state and local prevention efforts.
We use these data from nearly 8,000 students to write our annual childhood obesity report.
We appreciate the school nurses and staff who gave their time and energy to support us during a challenging school year.
Thank you to Central New Mexico Community College nursing students for diligently following our standardized measurement protocol, and to our local Healthy Kids Healthy Communities coalitions and public-health employees who work to improve children and families’ health.
Rita Condon
Program manager, Obesity, Nutrition and Physical Activity Program at NMDOH
