The Summit is an educational forum that provides an interactive and engaging look at best practices for obesity prevention in the Palmetto State. Breakout sessions will cover topics, such as community organizing, social media and advocacy, and other setting-specific strategies.

“Our Training and Education Committee is putting together a great agenda of breakout sessions that caters to a variety of professional interests and coalition priorities,” said Lauren Neely, Community Coordinator and Committee Liaison at Eat Smart Move More S.C.

Keynote speaker Scott Bricker, executive director at America Walks, will talk about gaining momentum and engagement with communities to create a culture that supports and encourages healthy living. Scott has over 17 years experience helping communities implement active transportation programs, leading strategic advocacy plans, and managing active transportation organizations.

“Scott will show us how to integrate best practices into coalition and community work so that we can build healthy communities from the ground up,” said Neely. “We’re very excited to have Scott share his experiences with us.”

America Walks works to make America a great place for walking by working collaboratively to share knowledge, advance policies and implement effective campaigns to promote safe, convenient and accessible walking conditions for all. They provide a web-based, online support network for local pedestrian advocacy groups, and offer advice about how to get started and how to be effective with public officials and engineering and design professionals.

Obesity Summit details will be posted on the Eat Smart Move More website as soon as they become available. Find more information about America Walks at Learn more at AmericaWalks.org.

Teens gathered May 28 at Drawdy Park to celebrate a milestone moment toward improving their community.

With samples of healthy foods and with activities to promote healthy lifestyles, the evening emphasized the HYPE (Healthy Young People Empowerment Program). The HYPE program is administered in partnership with Fairfield Behavioral Health Services and Eat Smart, Move More Fairfield.

“We work in community to improve and build skills of youth in the community,” member Zarretrious Evans said. “The (new Drawdy Park) walking trail and bike rack are healthy things that will help produce healthier lifestyles and result in healthier people.”

The commitment included 20-plus hours of time per student with HYPE training plus work to prepare themselves to present that project to the community. Vernon Kennedy, director of Fairfield County Behavioral Health Services, said the youth attended a summit in Columbia and shared their research and aspirations.

The group meets twice a month to do activities that reinforce its approach to youth empowerment. The five phases used for youth empowerment are 1. To Think 2. To Learn 3. To Act 4. To Share and 5. To Evaluate.

After brainstorming ideas and settling on a walking trail, the teens conducted 697 surveys with 74 percent of respondents saying a walking trail would improve community health. While 64 percent said they never walk in the park at present, 54 percent said they would use the trail.

Research leads to support

Armed with that research, the group needed funding for the project. When Mary Lynn Kinley heard of the program and saw results of surveys, she came on board and promised a portion of the $500,000 in recreation funding coming to District 6 via a bond initiative that would be used to fund the walking trail and bike rack.

The vision and passion for public health inspired Kinley, who represents District 6 on Fairfield County Council.

“This will inspire your classmates, brothers and sisters … and so I am supporting this (every step of the way),” she said. “My hat is off to you young people for taking such a proactive approach to good health.”

She mentioned how high blood pressure ran in her family and that her mother died at just 49. In response she adopted a healthier lifestyle including using a home gym and having a better diet. Now 70, she used herself as an example of beating those odds, something she said she wishes for her county’s residents as well.

Kinley mentioned the new football field being built at Drawdy Park and the positive social changes that can come about from having activities for young people. Kinley said she supports the program because young people are the future leaders of the county.

Great chemistry, work ethic

HYPE is a federally funded program offered in all states, but Fairfield County received one of the larger amounts of funding due to the organization of the youth and their leaders and the presentation and vision they had. Fairfield County is one of three counties in South Carolina to receive the HYPE funding.

Kennedy said the program has been a tireless effort since May 2012. He said it was a testament to what teamwork can do to build community and help young people.

“We had great chemistry with these youth,” Kennedy said “This is not the end with a walking trail and bike racks. We are hoping to expand the HYPE program to offer programming after school.”

Two other HYPE programs are funded through the Healthy SC Initiative. One deals with a recreation complex and concession stands in Irmo and another focuses on a park in Pickens.

“This (Fairfield) group has been very successful. It’s great this is youth-led and great leadership here in Fairfield to put this team together and stay on the right track,” said Trimease Carter, project coordinator of South Carolina’s Eat Smart, Move More.

At the community kickoff event, members of the Man Cave group volunteered to grill turkey burgers. HYPE members and community members served cherries, trail mix, fruit juices, vegetable juices, veggie fries and raw vegetables with healthy dips.

Mixing fun and education, mixing exercise and daily life is part of the HYPE initiative. For instance, while parents have their children at baseball practice, they could walk on the trails.

“It’s great for teens to get together and care about the community,” said Lori Schaffer, director of the Fairfield County Recreation Department. “It is very important for the youth and the public to engage in physical activity.”

If you said no, you are not alone.  Unfortunately, more than 25% of adults do not devote any time to getting their body moving during the day and 62% of kids do not get the daily vigorous activity they need.  This means we need to be doing more- as individuals, as communities, and as a nation- to prioritize physical activity where people live, work, learn, and play.    

Right now, there is an exciting opportunity to take some big steps forward toward that goal, as Congress considers two pieces of legislation that aim to help increase physical activity among kids, teens, and adults. Will you help us build support for these important bills? 

First, the Fitness Integrated with Teaching (FIT) Kids Act, sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Representative Ron Kind (D-WI), and Representative Aaron Schock (R-IL), would help prioritize physical education (PE) in our nation’s schools, giving kids the head start they need toward a healthy life.  With nearly one in three children overweight or obese and only 3.8% of elementary schools, 7.9% of middle schools, and 2.1% of high schools providing daily PE, the FIT Kids Act is needed now more than ever to improve the quality and quantity of PE kids receive during the school day.

Additionally, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Act would help guide our national, community, and individual efforts to increase physical activity, by directing the Department of Health and Human Services to issue recommendations to the public every 10 years based on the latest science.  The bipartisan bill was introduced by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) and Aaron Schock (R-IL).

How many legislators do you think we can get to sign on to these two important bills within the next month? Exercise your voice today to ask your Representative and Senators to become co-sponsors of the FIT Kids Act and the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Act.

The Senate approved a sweeping new farm bill on Monday that will cost nearly $955 billion over the next 10 years, the first step in a renewed attempt at passing legislation that will set the country’s food and agriculture programs and policy.

The bill, which finances programs as diverse as crop insurance for farmers, food assistance for low-income families and foreign food aid, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 66 to 27. The Senate passed a similar bill last year, but the House failed to bring its bill to a vote. The last farm bill that was passed by both chambers, in 2008, was extended until Sept. 30.

“The Senate today voted to support 16 million American jobs, to save taxpayers billions and to implement the most significant reforms to agriculture programs in decades,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan and chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She was a co-author of the bill with Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the committee.

The Senate bill would cut $24 billion from current spending levels, including about $4.1 billion from food stamps over the next 10 years. Groups fighting hunger said the cuts in food stamps would put millions of poor families at risk. A House version of the bill would provide for food stamp cuts of $20 billion, just one major example of how far apart the two houses are in adjusting spending.

In the House, the farm bill faces a much tougher road. Last year, conservative lawmakers helped kill the bill because of their desire for deeper cuts in the food stamp program, which serves about 45 million Americans.

Hoping to satisfy conservatives, the House Agriculture Committee recently increased the amount of cuts to the program to the $20 billion mark over the next 10 years, up from $16 billion in last year’s bill. In a statement before the Senate vote, Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said the House would begin work on its version of the farm bill this month.

Conservation programs that help protect farmland and waters would be cut by about $3.5 billion in the Senate bill, with additional reductions coming from the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester.

Senators also left in place the decades-old international food aid program. The Obama administration had called for overhauling the $1.4 billion program to allow the government to buy food locally in less developed countries, instead of buying food in the United States and shipping it overseas. The Senate rejected the proposal but increased spending for buying food abroad to $60 million from $40 million.

The most significant change would be the elimination of about $5 billion a year in direct payments to farmers and farmland owners, whether or not they grew crops. Eliminating the age-old program would make the highly subsidized crop insurance program the primary safety net when crop prices drop. Currently, the government subsidizes about 62 percent of the crop insurance premiums, and the policies typically guarantee 75 percent to 85 percent of a farmer’s revenue.

The crop insurance subsidy would cost about $9 billion a year. The policies are sold by 15 private insurance companies, which receive a total of about $1.3 billion annually from the government. The government also backs the companies against losses.

Critics of crop insurance, including the conservative Heritage Foundation and environmental groups, said it had become more of a farm income support program than a system that protects farmers in times of disasters like the 2012 drought.

The Senate bill would add subsides for Southern rice and peanut farmers, who said crop insurance would provide an inadequate safety net for them. But unlike last year’s bill, the existing legislation would preserve a catfish inspection program that opponents like Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, called duplicative and wasteful. The Food and Drug Administration has a similar inspection program.

The agriculture industry generally praised the bill. Environmental groups said it included some important changes but added that it fell short because it would expand crop insurance subsidies and price guarantees for the largest and most successful farmers while cutting nutrition and conservation programs.

What are the food options like in your neighborhood? They could be a huge predictor for obesity, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Drexel University School of Public Health found that people with healthy food options within a mile of their homes were less likely to become obese over a five-year period, compared with people who had to travel at least a mile away from home to get healthy food.

For the study, published in the journal Obesity, researchers followed 4,008 adults from six cities, all of whom were not obese at the start of the study. All the study participants gave information about nearby healthy food options, and walkability of their neighborhoods.

After five years, 406 of the people in the study had become obese — but researchers found that there were associations between becoming obese and having healthy food outside of a one-mile proximity to the study participants’ homes.

Researchers also found an association between walkability of the neighborhood and obesity, but they said that this link only held true in association with healthy food availability.

However, neighborhood walkability has been shown in previous studies to be linked with health. A study in the journal Diabetes Care that came out last year showed that people who live in walk-unfriendly neighborhoods have a 50 percent higher diabetes risk, compared with people who live in walk-friendly neighborhoods.

OAKLAND, Calif., May 31 (UPI) — Opening U.S. schools to the public for after-hours physical activity and play may help reduced obesity rates, researchers say.

Mariah Lafleur, Liz Schwarte and Rajni Banthia, all of Samuels & Associates in Oakland, Calif., said for this study, joint-use agreements were implemented in seven Los Angeles County school districts.

All seven districts had excessively high adult and child obesity rates, and all had executed a joint-use agreement between schools and community or government entities from January 2010 to December 2012.

The researchers observed 68 percent of the community members using the school facilities were participating in moderate or vigorous physical activity.

Observers recorded information for a total of 1,669 community members; nearly half were adults and almost all were non-white.

Researchers said they hoped the joint-use agreement would be adopted in multiple under-resourced communities where open space is limited and low incomes may prohibit people from being active.

The findings were published in Preventing Chronic Disease.

Download the accomplishments presentation.

Learn More about:
• Getting schools’ buy-in
• BMI data collection
• The benefits of BMI data

2013-05-20 14.01 BMI Collection in School from Eat Smart, Move More SC on Vimeo.

WINNSBORO — Winnsboro teens have sprung into action to better their community, specifically Drawdy Park.

Area teens did research and legwork and determined a walking trail would be a great addition to the park as part of promoting healthy living in Fairfield County. The trail also would build community unity.

The REAL Teen Action group, made up of students from Fairfield Middle and Fairfield Central High School has received about 20 hours of HYPE training through the five phase approach where they were charged with brainstorming, researching, assessing, analyzing, advocating and implementing a project in their community that they wanted to change concerning healthy eating and active living.

After collaborating with Fairfield County Recreation Director Lori Schaeffer and collecting 700 surveys, the REAL Teen Action/HYPE Project Team presented their work to both local and statewide stakeholders at the 2013 HYPE Project Youth Summit which was held at S.C. State Farmers Market on May 18.

The proposal moved Fairfield County Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley to agree to include the walking trail and bike racks as part of her district recreation efforts with the new bond issuance funds.

A Community Kick Off will be held from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. May 28 at Drawdy Park to celebrate the REAL Teen Action/HYPE Project Team efforts as well as the future addition of the walking trail and bike racks. There will be fun activities and food tasting. Everyone is welcome to come and celebrate the accomplishment of these young students.

The students, along with their advisors Cheryl Goodwin, Veronica Edmonds and Kennedy Robertson of Fairfield Behavioral Health Services along with parent volunteers Francine Goins and Marilyn Gaither, traveled to the Summit to meet with other HYPE teams from Pickens and Richland County to present their respective projects.

The REAL Teen Action/HYPE Project Team consists of 18 creative and empowered members who are Katelyn Banks, Kenuious Boyles, Jada Butler, Joyous Crosby, Zarretrious Evans, Rodney Gibson, Christian Gordon, Malik Harvey, Vernon Kennedy, Jr., Shardae Lamar, Sharmane Lamar, Charniece Manning, Cody McGauley, Jordan Samon, Monterrius Seabrook, Raven Tucker, Semaj Whitener and Eunique Wilson.

HYPE which is an acronym for “Healthy Young People Empowerment” was created to motivate and build the skills of youth to become a greater voice in their community. In May 2012, the “All Aboard For a Healthy Fairfield” theme was created from a new initiative from the Healthy South Carolina Initiative – Community Transformation Grant that was awarded to Fairfield Community Healthy Partners.

Specifically, Fairfield Behavioral Health Services in partnership with Eat Smart, Move More South Carolina (ESMMSC) and Fairfield Community Healthy Partners was charged with leading the youth empowerment component titled Healthy Young People Empowerment Project (HYPE).

HYPE is currently being implemented as project under the REAL Teen Action group that was developed during the 2011-2012 school term.

The Healthy South Carolina Initiative announced Rembert Area Community Coalition as one of 34 recipients of a public health grant to fight obesity and prevent tobacco use in Sumter County. This competitive funding opportunity provides awards to community-based partnerships focused on finding long-term, sustainable, system-wide solutions to health care concerns.

Rembert Area Community Coalition will receive up to $16,000 over 18 months to work on making healthier choices an option for Sumter County residents wanting to stop smoking, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables or get more exercise at work, school, church or at home. The goal is to assist communities experiencing a burden of chronic diseases caused by obesity and/or tobacco use.

More specifically, we’re going to use the grant to do an assessment of the community to find out what direction and how they would like to address health disparities and enhance the lifestyle of themselves and their families by using physical activity and eating fresh fruits and vegetables, said Dr. Juanita G. Britton,
chairwoman at Rembert Area Community Coalition. Our goal is to bring awareness to the benefit of physical activity and (how) eating healthy, nutritious food can lower the risk of chronic diseases.

Rembert Area Community Coalition is a collaboration of many partners in Sumter County, including Sumter County Active Lifestyles, Palmetto Healthy Start, Rural Area Leadership Institute, Insights Consulting Inc., Modern Turf, Master Gardeners, Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments, North Main Association, High Hills Rural Water Co., Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, Black River Missionary Baptist Association, private residents, Uni-safe Firearm Training and others.

The mission of Rembert Area Community Coalition is to empower the residents to be able to make healthy choices. The role of this committee is to gather and share data and present a report to the people based on the needs of the community. The initiative committee will work with the community, local/state law, and use
identified entities for implementation of that proposal. The coalition was established more that 12 years ago and has had great success in addressing the needs of the community by partnering with other organizations that will assist in the endeavor.

The Healthy South Carolina Initiative is a collaboration led by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control in partnership with Eat Smart Move More South Carolina, the South Carolina Tobacco-Free Collaborative, the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health Office of Public Health Practice, the University of South Carolina Institute for Medicine and Public Health and the Medical University of South Carolina’s Outpatient Quality Improvement Network.