Evaluation of Food Industry Initiatives to Reduce Obesity

The Healthy Weight Commitment initiative of the major food companies in the United States has stated that they will reduce caloric intake of US residents. Our UNC team is the official independent evaluators of this effort. The food industry created the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) to coordinate their initiative. This is also linked directly with First Lady Michelle Obama’s agreement with the food and beverage manufacturers to fight childhood obesity under her broader Let’s Move Initiative.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has agreed to fund an independent evaluation of the Healthy Weight Commitment (HWC) and selected the University of North Carolina team led by Barry Popkin to lead this research. The official start of this work was June 15, 2010 and the research will go on for a number of years.

• What will the UNC team do?
• What are the ultimate evaluation questions to be answered by the UNCFRP?
• Huge methodological challenges and opportunities
• the UNCFRP team
• Eminent Evaluation Advisory Committee and Program Advisers
• RWJF Actively involved in HWCF evaluation