Building Healthy Communities
Now more than ever the work our nation’s mayors are doing to advance healthy communities is critically important.
That’s why through the American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America, we proudly continued our partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) to support the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Environmental Health and Sustainability Awards. In 2022 we provided a total of $745,000 in grants to the cities of: Denver, Colo.; Orlando, Fla.; Baltimore, Md.; Des Moines, Iowa; Montgomery, Ala.; Bridgeport, Conn.; White Plains, N.Y.; Salisbury, N.C.; and Daytona Beach, Fla. These grants support mayors in advancing outstanding programs to enhance health, wellness and environmental quality of life for children and families. Through our decade-long partnership, more than $5 million has been awarded to more than 60 cities across the country. There is always more to do, especially as the pandemic brought an increased focus to issues that have long been a challenge to the daily lives of many Americans, such as nutrition access, affordability and education. That’s why we launched a new partnership between our Foundation and the African American Mayors Association (AAMA). With an annual grant program, together we will support programs that will help address health disparities in cities led by African American mayors. We look forward to announcing the inaugural grant recipients in 2023, and to sharing learnings from this important effort. And through the Foundation’s longstanding matching grant program, in partnership with state associations and local bottlers, we continue to support a variety of community organizations that are working to advance the physical and environmental health of their local communities. In 2022, the Foundation supported seven programs in five states, adding to the total impact of this important program.