• To build an understanding of healthy food and good nutrition to prevent childhood obesity, cancer and diabetes • To encourage the exploration of local food sources to promote local produce • To promote taste recognition of fresh and well-prepared food to safeguard health • To emphasize the social value of food knowledge • To illustrate the importance of physical fitness and healthy lifestyles.

Before the epidemic of childhood obesety life for children was a lot simpler. Children would play outdoors with their friends in their neighborhoods; they would walk or bike to school and then get home and sit down with their families to dinner and do their homework. Children today do not have those luxuries. Most children take the bus or are driven to school. Many kids do not play outside and do not have gym time. When they get home, instead of playing outside they sit down to the TV or the computer. Many parents work, so they come home to fast food that is filled with preservatives. This fast life has created a society of obese children. Children that do not know what whole foods look like. Have never been exposed to fresh fruits and vegetables and cannot relate to the feeling of being tired from running and playing with friends outdoors in the fresh air all day. HIP4Kids is changing all of that! They are helping to educate children about this obesity epidemic and inspiring them to take their health into their own hands. I applaud HIP4Kids and congratulate them on their efforts. Everyone has to do their part to turn this epidemic around and HIP4Kids is making a difference. Former First Lady of New York State Michelle Paige Paterson

Hip4Kids is a 501 c 3 Educational Foundation which was founded in 1999 to combat childhood obesity and Type II Diabetes We started working with special needs students in Queens New York and in 2001 we were granted tax exempt status from the IRS. In 2002 we became the healthy eating & teaching component within a New York State Program known as Wake Up! Shape Up! New York. Working in partnership with Deputy Commissioner of Park , Kevin Jeffries and The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. Hip4Kids brought our healthy cooking programs to 15 New York City Parks locations. Working with Kevin Jeffries &the Governors Office, we participated in myriad events including Kids in Motion sponsored by NIKE, Multiple Community Fairs and events and with OCFS on programs for youth. Over the course of the next several years we worked with Emblem Health, NYS Office of Children & Family Service, The Childrens Aid Society, The NYC Department of Education, NYC Parks & Recreation, The Omega Psi Fraternity and dozens of community organizations in NYC bringing the Hip4Kids message to well over 200,000 kids and parents. Hip4Kids, after several years became a for credit after school program for ESL and CFES students after school in NYC Schools. Currently we are working on a digital after school program to be hosted within www.hip4kids.org that will be a duplicate of our NYC afterschool programs complete with chef video instruction, curriculum and attendant cookshop materials for kids, young adults and teachers accessible to all for free. We are proud to say our tradition of education continues and now includes resources for children & young adults on the spectrum and their parents to optimize health for people with Autism. We are asking for Go Fund Me Donations to write curriculum, film videos, edit, publish and post our all-new Digital Workshops for students, teachers and parents across the country. PLEASE DONATE TODAY! Its All About What You Put on The Table!