Our Story

The Childhood Obesity Foundation was started in 2004 by a paediatrician and lawyer in British Columbia who wanted to do something about the childhood obesity epidemic in Canada. They gathered together Canadian experts in the field of childhood obesity, including physicians and researchers, and together they formed the Childhood Obesity Foundation (COF).

The COF board of directors then worked with the Ministry of Health and the Provincial Health Services Authority to hold the Childhood Obesity Forum in March 2005. BC's Premier opened the forum. The two-day forum included 110 individuals from all walks of life in including business, media, schools, health authorities, parks and recreation. Everyone came together to hear about the scope of the childhood obesity problem and come up with solutions.

In 2006 the Childhood Obesity Foundation was granted charitable status. The BC Ministry of Health kindly provided funding to get our work started. Since then the COF has been working on a variety of initiatives stemming from the 2005 forum. A unique feature of the Childhood Obesity Foundation is that we are working to educate ethnic minorities, specifically the Chinese and Punjabi communities, about childhood obesity. Some of our initiatives include:

• Creation of a website with information on childhood obesity for families, preschools, daycares, schools, communities, business and government
• Delivery of information forums on childhood obesity to the Chinese and Punjabi communities
• Collaborating with the BC Pediatric Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation to develop and implement a program to help educate school children about appropriate beverage choices
• Delivery of our key messages on healthy eating and active living to all British Columbians
• Presentations to the BC Standing Committee on Health
• Presentations to the House of Commons Health Committee
• Promotion and collaboration on valuable research which will help halt or reverse the current trends of overweight and obesity at the local, provincial and national levels.

Our Mission

The mission of the Childhood Obesity Foundation is to identify, evaluate and promote best practices in healthy nutrition and physical activity to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity.

The vision of the Childhood Obesity Foundation is children and youth of Canada free of chronic diseases that ensue from obesity.

 

Our Operating Principles

In seeking to fulfil our mission, our strategic priorities are set in a framework, which makes the following assumptions:

 

• we are non-partisan.
• we will conduct principle-based fundraising and only accept funding from ethical businesses whose dealings are consistent with our mission and vision.
• we value sustainability and consistently enhance our work through evaluation.
• we value collaboration and cooperation.
• we value excellence, accountability, integrity, and transparency.
• we strive to be an independent resource for government in their pursuit of a comprehensive program which addresses the issues of child and adolescent overweight and obesity.