HONOLULU — A nearly $150,000 grant will fund a new school-community-government partnership to fight obesity on the Big Island.

The funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is creating a program called HO’ALA. Its goal is to improve access to active modes of transportation to and from school.
HO’ALA will focus on tracking changes to existing transportation policies, as well as bicycle and pedestrian planning efforts.
One of the HO’ALA coordinators, Laura Dierenfield of Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii, said Wednesday that the program wants to make it easy, fun and safe to get daily exercise by walking or bicycling to school.
A dozen Big Island schools will be selected to take part in HO’ALA.