Six campuses in the Aldine Independent School District received a $72,000 grant from the MD Anderson Cancer Center to fund a program called “Be Well Acres Homes.” The program aims to reduce the risk of cancer through exercise, nutrition education and sun safety education. This marks the third grant Aldine ISD has received from MD Anderson.
The program will start this month and run through May 2025 for fourth, fifth, and sixth-graders in Aldine ISD schools in the Acres Homes area.
The six campuses that will benefit from the program include:
- Anderson Academy
- Caraway Elementary
- Goodman ACE
- Harris Academy
- Houston Academy
- Smith Elementary
The grant will provide the student participants with heart rate monitors, sunscreen dispensers, BRAINBall equipment that integrates math and literacy into physical activity, water bottles, and shirts.
MD Anderson established the “Be Well Communities” in 2016 to prevent and control cancer by working alongside communities. The program has been implemented in Baytown, Pasadena, and Acres Homes. It uses evidence to implement interventions involving community services, public education, and policy interventions.
According to a press release from the school district, the program will use heart rate monitors to track and improve cardiovascular endurance, thereby reducing the risk of cancer.
Students are required to stay after school for one hour every week, including 12 times in the fall and 15 times in the spring.
Aldine ISD’s Child Nutrition Department will provide snacks to participating students at the end of each session, and the district will arrange for bus transportation.
“Part of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model is physical activity,” said Kenneth Hernandez, coordinator of health and physical education and the program manager of the grant, in a statement. “The Active Kids program is another way Aldine ISD is ensuring students have opportunities to be physically active, accelerating their path to being healthy, lifelong learners.”
Hernandez cited a 2023 study that found high rates of obesity, tobacco use, and poverty in the Acres Homes area, which results in a sedentary lifestyle and increases the risk of cancer. It further said that a lack of exercise opportunities at a young age can also adversely affect health.
While four out of 10 people here live under the federal poverty line, 37% of adults are uninsured.
Acres Home is a “Super Neighborhood” designed by the City of Houston and has 57,000 residents. It was established during the First World War and was once considered to have the largest unincorporated African-American community in the South. The demographics of the area have been changing, with more Hispanic residents (now 43& of the population) coming to live in the area, but it still holds a legacy of Black people living in poverty.
The area also got the status of a medically underserved area with high rates of “unhealthy behaviors,” . While the risk of cancer is not higher there currently, its risk factors, rates of obesity, and tobacco use are higher as compared to Harris County, the state of Texas, and Healthy People 2030 goals. Moreover, around 45% of its residents are experiencing obesity, 18% are diabetic, and 36% have a sedentary lifestyle.
In July 2023, UTHealth Houston School of Public Health researchers planned an initiative to combat cancer disparities exacerbated by poverty. Collaborators at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center received a five-year grant of $10 million, and UTHealth Houston will also receive nearly $2 million as co-investigators for cancer prevention research and programs in low-income areas. The UTHealth Houston partnership sought to establish an Acres Homes Cancer Prevention Collaboration.
