Washington, D.C., is among nine communities across the country that will be leading sites for the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities program, a new $44 million initiative sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The nine communities each were awarded grants of up to $400,000 to increase physical activity and access to healthy, affordable foods for children and their families.

Washington plans to establish a "saturation index" of unhealthy food vendors to help fight obesity in two lower-income wards in the district.