The Leflore County School Board voted Thursday to allow two schools to take part in a study involving the effects of nutrition and physical activity on third-graders.
Leflore County 4-H received a 2006 Healthy Lifestyles grant, with the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce serving as a sponsor along with the Greenwood Leflore Hospital Wellness Center.
The grant program, established by Kraft Foods Inc. in partnership with Cargill, is aimed at counteracting the trend of childhood obesity.
Beverly Quinn, the school district nurse, asked that third-graders at T.Y. Fleming and Claudine Brown elementary schools participate in the study. They would take classes in nutrition conducted by the Leflore County Extension Service.
Third-graders at St. Francis School and Bankston Elementary School would serve as the test group. They would take the classes and also have five minutes of exercise each morning.
Students at Fleming and Brown would serve as the control group, meaning that they would not take part in the exercise plan.
Students would be weighed at the end of the school year and again in September.
Weigh-ins are to be conducted by Christina Meriwether, 4-H youth agent, and John Cook, director of the Greenwood Leflore Hospital Wellness Center.
