BCBSKS Foundation - Healthy Habits for Life

A grant program for Kansas School nurses

Healthy Habits for Life is a major grant-giving program of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Foundation. It is offered to help school nurses address a current major health issue in Kansas and the nation: childhood obesity.

The Healthy Habits for Life program is offering a total of $40,000 in grants to assist school nurses in promoting healthy lifestyle choices to their students. The foundation will work with representatives from the Kansas School Nurse Organization in selecting worthy recipients.

The foundation recognizes that school nurses have a unique opportunity to teach students about healthy habits through curriculum and programs that reach them where they spend so much of their time: school. As a young, captive audience, students can be more easily influenced to develop life-long healthy habits and behaviors. The foundation hopes that curbing childhood obesity now will translate into healthy adults later, saving health care dollars for all Kansans.

About the Program

$40,000 will be awarded in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Foundation service area, which includes all Kansas counties except Johnson and Wyandotte.
The maximum grant amount is $1,000; no more than one public school within a school district will be selected. However, nurses within a school district are welcome to coordinate their efforts and submit one proposal for the entire district. Funds cannot be used for salary or wages of any staff or employee; all funds must directly benefit the needs of the program.
The funds will be distributed by Oct. 31, 2009, and can be used for programs administered during the 2009-2010 academic year.
Past grant recipients are eligible to apply again but must adequately explain how an additional grant would help them to either expand their existing program or create a new one.

View a list of the 2009-10 winners.

View a list of 2008-09 winners and summaries of their programs.