Let’s Move! for the
Apps for Healthy Kids competition.

$60,000 in prizes to create innovative, fun and engaging software tools and games that encourage children directly or through their parents to make more nutritious food choices and be more physically active.

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All 12 prizes are in! Please view them and write your congratulatory notes here. Thank you to all the app-makers and those who contributed their support by promoting the challenge.

About Apps for Healthy Kids

The Apps for Healthy Kids competition is a part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation. Apps for Healthy Kids challenges software developers, game designers, students, and other innovators to develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially “tweens” (ages 9-12) – directly or through their parents – to eat better and be more physically active.

Childhood obesity or excess weight threatens the healthy future of one third of American children. We spend approximately $150 billion every year to treat obesity-related conditions, and that number is growing. Obesity rates tripled in the past 30 years, a trend that means, for the first time in our history, American children may face a shorter expected lifespan than their parents. We need to get moving!

Tools and games should be built using the USDA nutrition dataset recently made available to the public through the Open Government Initiative. The dataset provides information on total calories, calories from “extras” (solid fats and added sugars), and MyPyramid food groups for over 1,000 commonly eaten foods. We are seeking innovative and creative tools and games that use the USDA dataset to deliver nutrition and health concepts in a fun and engaging way.

Important Dates Back to the top

Submission Period Begins: 2:00pm EST March 10, 2010

Submission Period Ends:
5:00pm EDT June 30, 2010

Judging Panel and Public Voting Period Begins:
12:00pm EDT July 14, 2010

Judging Panel and Public Voting Period Ends:
12:00pm EDT August 14, 2010

Winner Demonstrations and Recognition Ceremony:
September 29, 2010

How to Enter Back to the top

During the competition submission period (March 10 – June 30, 2010), first register here (registration is free) and read the complete Official Rules and Questions and Answers. After you register you must verify your email address via the registration email sent to the email entered in the registration form. You will then be able to enter a submission. Fill out the submission form on the submit application tab, including your submission title, text description, link to game or tool, data set(s) used, and whether you are submitting in the “tool” or “game” category. A picture and video are optional but helpful. Be sure to read the terms and conditions, and if you agree, check off the box, and submit!

Judges Back to the top

All submissions will initially be screened by a qualified internal USDA panel, which will select the top submissions based on the criteria below. The top submissions will be judged by the expert judges listed below, using the same criteria:

  • Potential impact on target audience
  • Quality, accuracy, and content of message
  • Creativity and originality
  • Potential for further development and use
  • Potential to engage and motivate target audience

Our panel of expert judges includes:

The Popular Choice Winners which will be determined by public vote on this web site during the Public Voting Period.

See the Official Rules for complete details.

Prizes Back to the top

  • Tool Category:
    • Grand Prize Winner - $10,000
    • Runner Up - $4,500
    • Honorable Mention - $1,000
    • Popular Choice Winner - $4,500
    • Corporate Recognition Award - Public acknowledgement and no cash prize
    • GE Healthymagination Student Award - $10,000
  • Games Category:
    • Grand Prize Winner - $10,000
    • Runner Up - $4,500
    • Honorable Mention - $1,000
    • Popular Choice Winner - $4,500
    • Corporate Recognition Award - Public acknowledgement and no cash prize
    • GE Healthymagination Student Award - $10,000

Following the announcement of the awards, winners will be honored at a White House event in Washington, DC. Judges, members of the White House and USDA staffs, media representatives, and other guests will be invited to attend as well. Travel to the event for Grand Prize Winners, Runners Up, Popular Choice Winners, and Winners of the Corporate Recognition Award will be provided by USDA in the amount of up to $500 for individual Winners and up to $1,500 for winning teams. Travel to the event for Winners of the GE Healthymagination Student Awards will be provided by GE in the amount of up to $500 for individual Winners and up to $1,500 for winning teams.

Prize money for the GE Heathymagination Student Awards will be provided to the Winners by GE Healthymagination. The USDA does not endorse any commercial enterprise or product.

Abbreviated Rules Back to the top

Those interested in entering should first register here and read the complete Official Rules and Questions and Answers section. (These abbreviated rules are only a summary. There is additional important criteria you must know regarding eligibility and submission requirements.)

  1. Apps for Healthy Kids is open to U.S. residents of the 50 States (plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa) who are 13 years and over, and businesses and organizations domiciled in the U.S.
  2. Developers may submit their original software tools or games starting at 2:00 pm EST on March 10, 2010. All submissions must be received by 5:00 pm EDT on June 30, 2010.
  3. Submissions must be software tools or games that use the USDA Nutrition Dataset found at www.cnpp.usda.gov/Innovations/DataSource.htm. (This is the same as the dataset at www.data.gov/details/1294.) [Note: The required USDA Nutrition Dataset is part of a larger USDA dataset called the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS). Use of the 3.0 version of this larger dataset is also acceptable as the required dataset. The FNDDS 3.0 dataset can be downloaded here.] In addition to the required USDA Nutrition Dataset, submissions may also use the Source Code (found at www.cnpp.usda.gov/Innovations/DataSource.htm) and/or any other data set(s) provided at www.data.gov. The applications may be any kind of software tool or game, be it for the web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, or any software platform broadly available to the public. If the submission cannot be accessed for review purposes by the public and the judges via a web link, a link to video of all features must be submitted. Judges may request that the developer provide access to the software through some reasonable, additional means, for verification purposes. All submissions must be made available free of charge to the public.
  4. There are two types of submissions: 1) “Games” that educate through engaging the user in an entertaining experience, or 2) “Tools” that empower users to access, visualize, sort, mash, track, or otherwise better understand data in ways that will inform user behavior.
  5. All submissions must incorporate at least one of the following nutrition and health concepts, either independently or in combination:
    • Teaching kids to eat more whole grain
    • Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption
    • Focusing on consuming more low- or non-fat milk
    • Choosing lean sources of protein (such as meat and beans)
    • Making food group education fun
    • Understanding calories and energy balance
    • Increasing choices of foods with high nutrition value and decreasing amounts of foods with solid (saturated) fats and added sugars (i.e., "extra" calories), and decreasing amounts of sodium
    • Identifying and consuming proper food portion sizes
    • Being more physically active
    • Balancing physical activity and food intake
  6. Submissions will be published on this web site on a rolling basis as they are received throughout the competition submission period.
  7. Finalist submissions will be reviewed by the panel of judges.
  8. All tools and games submitted to Apps for Healthy Kids remain the intellectual property of the individuals or organizations that developed them, though the USDA will retain the right to use and distribute all applications to the public free of charge for one year after the announcement of winners.