Moving More, Eating Smarter Communities Background
The Moving More, Eating Smarter (MMES) Communities Program is the face of healthy communities programs throughout North Dakota.
The goals of the Moving More, Eating Smarter Communities Program are to encourage North Dakotans to:
- make smart choices from every food group and
- move more on most days of the week.
The healthy communities program was known as the 5 + 5 Program for 10 years, from 1998 through 2008. The first community coalitions recognized under this program in 1998 were New Town/Fort Berthold, Cavalier County, the South Central coalition and Williston. The 5 + 5 Program encouraged increasing the intake of healthful foods (five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily) and physical activity (30 minutes or more of moderate physical activity five or more days of the week). Gradually more community coalitions came on board, reaching a high number of 18 in 2008.
The programs have grown and evolved, but still focus on reducing chronic diseases, those that stick with people for many years, like heart disease or diabetes. Today’s chronic diseases include malnourishment caused by an excess of inexpensive, unhealthy foods and environmental barriers that prevent access to nutritious foods and physical activity. MMES community coalitions are working to reduce their residents’ chronic disease risks by promoting awareness, helping to build skills, and adapting the community environment and policies to encourage lifestyle change.
Activities of MMES community coalitions include working with local school districts to implement nutrition and physical activity policies and practices, providing lessons in schools to help change nutrition and physical activity and nutrition behaviors in grades 4-6, implementing community-wide and worksite-level nutrition and physical activity motivation/promotion and challenge programs, providing education to all ages about the health benefits of fruits and vegetables and physical activity, designing and providing educational materials for native communities, and helping make communities more pedestrian-friendly.
