The Mayor's Healthy Cities Campaign was launched in the spring of 2004 in response to the nation's growing obesity epidemic and its relationship to chronic diseases and certain types of cancers. Because chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease and obesity often can be prevented or alleviated through regular exercise and healthy eating, the Mayors Healthy Cities Campaign focuses on ways that mayors can have an impact on the health of their constituents by:

-Establishing policies and programs that facilitate physical exercise and healthy eating, particularly among low-income individuals and racial and ethnic minorities; and

-Promoting the benefits of physical activity and healthy eating.  

Currently, the campaign is addressing the nation's obesity epidemic by focusing on children, since the nation is raising the first generation that may live sicker and die younger than their parents.