Pennington Biomedical Research Center publicly introduced its Greaux Healthy initiative, a public service initiative designed to help improve Louisiana kids’ health at every age. Developed in partnership with the State of Louisiana, Greaux Healthy implements 35 years of Pennington Biomedical research and discoveries to inform tools, resources, and programing for children, parents, healthcare providers, and educators throughout the state.
Greaux Healthy initiative has developed, and continues to expand, a variety of tools and resources designed to support childhood obesity prevention and treatment. Greaux Healthy covers four priority populations: expectant families and parents of infants, preschool-aged children, school-aged children, and adolescents and young adults
The Greaux Healthy program includes a school-wide promotion of healthy behaviors, physical education lessons with instant activities, take-home newsletters, and classroom lessons with corresponding activity books. These materials have been adopted by more than 20 schools around the state in regions including Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and Lafayette, with many more planned. Currently tailored for fourth grade classrooms, Greaux Healthy aims to expand program implementation in the 2025-2026 school year providing classroom resources from fourth through eighth grades.
In Louisiana childcare centers, Greaux Healthy is offering education and support through trainings that help the centers implement best practices across their programs. These trainings have been completed at centers around the Baton Rouge area with plans to expand via training and implementation partners and self-paced online learning.
For health providers, Greaux Healthy offers education on evidence-based childhood obesity treatment. Its efforts are supported by the Greaux Healthy Provider Hub, an online hub that offers a free Childhood Obesity Prevention, Evaluation, and Treatment Toolkit and continuing education opportunities through the Improving Childhood Obesity Care webinar series.
To reach Louisianians, Greaux Healthy is launching a tour with its Healthy Moves bus traveling to all nine Louisiana Department of Health regions of the state to showcase ways the initiative can benefit every community.
The Pennington Generation research study will also take part in the statewide tour, enrolling Louisiana families who want to learn more about how physical activity, nutrition, sleep habits, and other factors affect children’s health and development.
Greaux Healthy is overseen by a national scientific advisory board, with researchers representing Tufts University, University of Florida, Duke University School of Medicine, Columbia University, Temple University College of Public Health, and the Nationwide Children’s Hospital.