On the prevention front, committee members on Tuesday also learned about a Utah Department of Health program intended to introduce schoolchildren to a healthy, active lifestyle.

Nearly 300 Utah elementary schools have enrolled in the Gold Medal Schools program since its creation in 2001, said Ladene Larsen, with the health department's bureau of health promotion. With another $290,000 in state funding, the program could expand into many of the 195 non-participating elementary schools, as well as several junior high and middle schools.

The program coincides with an initiative by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to decrease by 10 percent the number of Utah children who are overweight. Health department figures show that 25 percent of all Utah youth are either overweight or are at risk of becoming overweight — enough schoolchildren to fill 2,000 classrooms, Larsen said.

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