What is UNICEF doing giving high tech fitness bands to thousands of school children around the U.S.?  Well the answer, part of its Kid Power program, is actually two-fold.

 “One in four American kids is underactive -they're little couch potatoes. And one in four children around the world has some level of malnourishment, and so we are trying to get the kids who are underactive healthy and active,” explains Caryl Stern of U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “When they meet those goals, our sponsors release micronutrients to save the lives of children around the world. So the children are challenged to meet that minimum number of steps every day and they swipe their bands so that they can sync with the website every day and that tracks how they do.”

Every time a child hits 12,000 steps, a nutrition packs is donated to a child in need.

In addition to the exercise, the program also brings into the classroom a curriculum to help better teach these children about malnutrition around the world.

 “There’s a lot of like disasters that happen to them, so now their environment is destroyed and they don’t have enough food,” said one student. “It not only helps me but it also helps somebody else and it feels good knowing that."

Right now, the Kid Power program is being run in schools in three cities: Boston, Dallas and New York. UNICEF says next year, the program will expand to other schools and even allow individuals who are willing to buy the fitness band on their own to also participate.