Growing Healthy Futures Together: How Louisiana is Turning Childhood Health Research into Action

Improving children’s health takes all of us. Families, healthcare providers, schools, researchers, and community partners each play an important role.

For more than 35 years, researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center have studied obesity, nutrition, physical activity, and other factors that affect health. This research helps us better understand how children grow, how to prevent and treat childhood obesity, and how healthy habits can support lifelong health.

But discovering what works is only the beginning.

Turning Research into Real-World Impact

A child’s health is shaped by many factors. Nutrition, physical activity, sleep, genetics, family routines, access to healthcare, and the environment around them can all play a part. That means there is no single solution to improving childhood health or addressing childhood obesity.

Greaux Healthy, a public service initiative powered by Pennington Biomedical Research Center in partnership with the State of Louisiana, helps connect research with real life. Evidence-based research is transformed into tools and programs for families, educators, healthcare providers, and communities across the state.

The goal is simple: make trusted health information easier to understand, easier to access, and easier to put into action.

Building Healthy Habits in Louisiana Schools

Children spend much of their day at school, making schools an important place to support healthy habits.

The Greaux Healthy School Health Program gives schools research-informed tools to make nutrition, physical activity, and healthy behaviors part of the school day. Resources include classroom lessons, physical education activities, student workbooks, school-wide materials, and activities that help families continue learning at home. The program serves students in grades 4-8 and continues to expand to schools across Louisiana.

Partnerships have helped make this growth possible. Through the partnership between Greaux Healthy, Caddo Parish Public Schools, and Healthy Blue, eight schools and more than 4,200 students have been reached over the past two school years.

The collaboration has helped provide schools with research-informed health education, support for putting the program into practice, and additional opportunities for students to be active and build healthy habits. Feedback from participating educators has also been encouraging, with 100% of surveyed teachers and school champions saying they would recommend the Greaux Healthy School Health Program. These results show what can happen when schools, researchers, community organizations, and families work toward the same goal. Research becomes something teachers can teach, students can practice, and families can use at home.

Bringing Research into Childhood Obesity Care 

Research-to-action is just as important in healthcare.

On September 24, Pennington Biomedical hosted the 2026 Be the Reason Kids Greaux Healthy Childhood Obesity Conference, bringing together healthcare providers, researchers, educators, public health professionals, and community leaders to focus on childhood obesity prevention and treatment. The conference helped answer an important question: How can we use what research tells us to improve care for children and families?

Through presentations, discussions, and opportunities for collaboration, attendees explored topics including early prevention, nutrition and physical activity, rural health innovation, advances in treatment, and the future of pediatric obesity care.

The event also highlighted the importance of connecting research with the realities children and families face every day. Healthcare providers need current evidence and practical tools, but they also need support from families, schools, researchers, and community organizations. When these groups work together, research has a better chance of becoming meaningful change for children. The conference provided an opportunity to share knowledge, strengthen partnerships, and identify new ways to put evidence-based strategies into practice across Louisiana.

Louisiana Families are Helping Shape Future Research

Families are not only benefiting from research. They can also help shape what researchers learn next.

The Pennington Generation Study is a statewide, long-term research study focused on the health and growth of Louisiana children. Researchers are studying how nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and other factors may affect children’s health over time. By learning directly from Louisiana families, researchers can better understand how health develops throughout childhood and look for new ways to prevent chronic disease and support healthier futures.

Pennington Biomedical is also working with the LSU AgCenter to help expand participation and reach families across Louisiana to help expand participation and reach families across Louisiana.

The information families share today could help researchers better understand children’s health for years to come. Learn more about Pennington Generation and opportunities to participate.

Everyone Has a Role in Growing Healthy Futures

Improving childhood health is not the job of one person, profession, or organization. Progress happens when people work together.

• Families can use trusted information to make small, realistic healthy changes at home. 
• Educators can help children learn about nutrition, physical activity, and other healthy habits at school. 
• Healthcare providers can use evidence-based tools to support childhood obesity prevention, evaluation, and treatment. 
• Community organizations and partners can help bring programs and resources to more families across Louisiana. 

Greaux Healthy helps connect these efforts by making Pennington Biomedical research practical and accessible for the people who can use it.

Growing Healthier Futures, Together

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month each September brings attention to childhood obesity, but supporting children’s health is a year-round effort.

Research gives us knowledge. Partnerships help put that knowledge into action. And families, schools, healthcare providers, and communities help turn that action into real-world impact. Together, we can continue building a healthier future for Louisiana children—one family, one school, and one community at a time.

Keep Growing with Us

Looking for trusted information for your family, resources for your school, evidence-based tools for your practice, or ways to support children’s health in your community?

Explore Greaux Healthy Programs & Resources for families, educators, healthcare providers, and community partners.

And stay connected with Greaux Healthy for new resources, Pennington Biomedical research updates, and future education and learning opportunities.