School buses that walk kids to class are among ways Chicago hopes to trim childhood obesity.

In black and Hispanic neighborhoods, parents, schools and community leaders are making small changes that could add up to a big improvement in children's health.

"The Latino and African-American communities across the nation are in a state of epidemic," said Guillermo Gomez, father of a Chicago public school student and the Chicago director for the Healthy Schools Campaign, a children's health advocacy group.

"You can't put it any other way," he said. "There's an epidemic in these communities in the area of obesity and health disparity. Once parents understand that, there's no other way but to come out and help and try to make a difference."

Overweight children have a higher risk of developing diabetes and heart disease, among other health complications.

Two out of every three children in Chicago's minority neighborhoods are overweight or obese -- a number that far surpasses already disturbing national averages, according to a 2004 study by the Sinai Urban Health Institute.

The study found that more than 50 percent of children who live in the predominantly black neighborhoods of North Lawndale and Roseland are obese.

The statistics appear at a time when many public schools in these neighborhoods, and throughout Chicago, have eliminated recess and physical education because of budget shortages or a push to focus more time on improving test scores.

"Having recess or physical education is at the discretion of each school's principal," said Denise Murphy-Stroud, the physical education curriculum manager for CPS who is developing programs that train teachers to incorporate physical activity into regular classrooms.

The Chicago Board of Education is partnering with community-based organizations to develop physical education and nutrition programs that they hope will work for each neighborhood.

Among them are the walking school bus, where parent volunteers pick kids up at home or at designated locations along a walking route to school.

"It not only encourages kids to walk, it gives them a safe route to do that," said Liz Wuerfell, who oversees Transportation that is Active and Safe for Kids.

The group aims to foster safe walking and biking in Uptown, Edgewater, West Town, East Humboldt Park, West Garfield Park and Ashburn.