Clark County Eat Right, Be Fit Committee Continues to Work Toward Making the County a Healthier Place
Monday, March 16th, 2020 -- 3:38 PM
-The Clark County Eat Right, Be Fit Coalition has been around since the early 2000’s and has accomplished a lot in that time.I spoke with Tammy Sloniker, with the Clark County Rehabilitation and Living Center, and Rebecca Greisan, with the Clark County Health Department, and they explained the history of the group.
Tammy: “Back in 2003, we received a grant to do an assessment of Clark County for its nutritional needs. And from that assessment, the number one concern brought to the table was the increasing rate of obesity and the lack of access or use of federal food assistance programs. The Eat Right, Be Fit Coalition developed following that assessment to work at the community level. Members of the coalition have been community members, individuals from food pantries, public health individuals, UW-Extension, WIC, ADRC, farmer’s market managers, master gardeners, and master food preservers. So, we’ve had a wide variety of people come to the table.”
“We also looked at the community level, worksites, schools, where people live, work and play. Areas that we concentrated on were increasing health food options, trying to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables. We also looked at breastfeeding and increasing physical activity.”
They also discussed some of the things the group has accomplished over the years.
Tammy: “Well, when we started, like I said, we kind of looked at increasing fruits and vegetables because that kind of helps people to maintain their weight. So, in that area we looked at increasing farmer’s markets in our communities and farm stands. We helped to develop some school gardens and community gardens in Clark County. We started to work with food pantries, increasing awareness of what times they were open and where they were located. We worked with the pantries also on providing healthy food options. We worked with grocery stores, we had little recipe cards made up and it also included how to store fresh fruits and vegetables. Community education classes were held on how to grow, preserve and cook with fresh fruits and vegetables that are grown in Clark County.”
“In the breastfeeding area, we helped daycares in the area to develop breastfeeding policies to help breastfeeding moms with storage of their breast milk while their babies were at daycare. We helped worksites develop breastfeeding rooms for pumping and policies for that. We did prenatal classes here in Neillsville partnering with the Neillsville Clinic. We also established some breastfeeding areas at the Clark County Fair and Family Fun Fest. We started working with libraries and churches on policies.”
“In the physical activity area, we did work with local schools and developed some brain break cards that were given out, so that kids can get physically active for three to five mintues in between their studying to help them get some extra activity throughout the day and to help with their studying. We developed the Road Map to a Healthier You Guide that talks about healthy eating and physical activity options in Clark County. And we also worked with schools getting the weekend backpack program established.”
They then discussed some things they’d like to accomplish in the future as they move forward.
Rebecca: “One thing, that I think, we both really hope to accomplish is to continue our collaboration with community members and community partners. Anybody that wants to join Eat Right, Be Fit or attend meetings, they’re open meetings. Anybody is welcome to come, whether they represent themselves or they have special interest or they’re a part of an organization, we want to keep that door open. Partners that currently belong to Eat Right, Be Fit are from Extension-Clark County, Clark County Aging and Disability Resource Center, Marshfield Health System, Clark County Health Department, Clark County Rehabilitation and Living Center and Our Ascension, Our Lady of Victory Hospital.”
“One program that, I think, has just taken off since September, and the coordinator for this is Nancy Vance from Extension, she has implemented the Strong Bodies program and it has just grown and taken off! It’s an evidence-based program that’s designed to help prevent the onset of osteoporosis and it also provides education and, most importantly, socialization opportunities for, not older people, but I’d say middle to older age individuals. They work with different weights and exercises. It’s, like I said, an evidence-based program. Since September, Nancy has had 18 women attend the classes. And 8 individuals have been trained as trainers, so there is somebody actually leading a class. I think it’s an hour long and three different communities have become involved in this program and they’re Neillsville, Granton and Loyal. And Nancy and Extension like to do a lot of surveys over there and Nancy has reported that 100% of her participants have seen an improvement in their strength, which is really awesome! So, that’s one program that I’d like to see Eat Right, Be Fit Committee continue to support.”
“And another initiative that I’d like to see expanded is worksite or community breastfeeding policy. So, last year, in 2019, our group made some progress in getting three worksites to be more breastfeeding friendly. We know that breastfeeding has numerous health benefits for both the mom and the baby. For baby, it provides important antibodies against illnesses, it promotes healthy weight gain and it can also reduce the risk for certain diseases. For mom, breastfeeding is a nice way to bond with the baby, recover from childbirth more quickly and also reduce the chances for some diseases like Type II Diabetes and cancer.”
“So, what we did is we wrote up draft policies because I think a lot of places are, in my opinion, trying to move toward becoming more breastfeeding friendly, but they don’t really have solid policies in place. So, that’s where Eat Right, Be Fit comes in. So, we drafted policies for both United Church of Christ here in Neillsville and Colby Community Library. We do still have these policies available if anybody is interested and any other organizations are listening. You can contact me, Rebecca, at the Clark County Health Department. But we wanted to target facilities that had, not only staff, but also served the public. So, in our opinion, that would be churches and libraries. So, they have taken this to their higher ups and it’s still in the process of being improved, so they don’t have their policies in place yet, but we did make progress towards implementation. Also, right here at the Clark County Courthouse and the Clark County Rehabilitation and Living Center, there has been a lot of work done toward becoming more breastfeeding friendly sights for employees and for the public.”
“Lastly for me, my dream, and one thing I really want to work on in the future is I want to get an apple trail in Clark County. So, I know that there are already walking and biking trails throughout the county. For example, we have the Abby-Colby Trail, the Listeman Arboretum here in Neillsville, Wildcat Park and the Poplar River Trail up in the Owen-Withee area. However, when I lived in Marshfield for a while, one of my favorite things to do is I like to rollerblade and I actually trained for a half-marathon last year, so I got into running. And they have little apples along the trail that serve as mile markers and I thought that was so neat!”
“So, I don’t know, but I don’t think it would be too complicated to get something like that implemented in Clark County. So, for example, if we look at Neillsville, I would like to work with the cross country or track team and ask them what their favorite routes to run are. If we were to get some sort of marked trail in Clark County, we could also have activity stations along the trail that go with the mile markers. So, like the little libraries you see in communities, they would be like that, but with activities instead of books. The activities would be geared towards kids and ask things like ‘how many trees do you see or count the number of yellow houses?’ I envision 4-H or the local tech ed department willing to help out with something like that. I just think that having little mile markers for routes and it wouldn’t have to be apples. It could be the high school logo or the mascot. But you could have them in different colors representing the difficulty level of the route.
It’s just community buy-in. Partners working together and that’s what our group is about, promoting healthy physical activity.”
Finally, they discussed how someone can get involved with the coalition if they’re interested in improving the health of Clark County.
Rebecca: “So, we meet the third Tuesday of every month from 9:30am in the morning to 10:30am in the morning. And every third meeting, so we’re trying to become more inclusive across Clark County, this has happened since the beginning of this year, every third meeting is now held in Abbotsford at their city hall. Our next one will actually be in Abbotsford and that is Tuesday, March 17th. And the one after that will be back here in Neillsville on April 21st at the Clark County Health Department.”
“And I would just like to reiterate, I said earlier, if anyone is interested in joining the group, it is open to both community members and organizations. I’d recommend contacting Tammy the Chairperson. She works mainly out of the Clark County Rehabilitation and Living Center in Owen. If somebody is interested in joining, they can just call that facility and ask for Tammy Sloniker and the number for that is 715-229-2172.”
“We’ve really done a lot of work over the years. But we are excited and open to doing more. The more partners we have, we feel the more that we can get done, so we look forward to what the future has in store.”
Again, their next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 17th at the Abbotsford City Hall starting at 9:30am.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.