Moving More, Eating Smarter Communities
- Barnes On the Move Partnership
- Bismarck: Moving More, Eating Smarter/ Go! Bismarck Mandan
- Cavalier County – Move To Better Health
- Dakota Corners Health Coalition, Hettinger
- Fargo: Moving More, Eating Smarter/Cass-Clay Healthy People Initiative
- Fort Berthold Healthy Living Coalition: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- Grand Forks: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- Healthy Lifestyle Coalition, Jamestown
- Minot Area Team Wellness
- Morton County: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- Nelson, Griggs & Steele Counties: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- Richland County: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- Rolette County: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- South Central Partnership: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- Southwest Healthy Eating - Active Living Network, Dickinson
- Walsh County: Moving More, Eating Smarter
- Williston: Moving More, Eating Smarter
Cavalier County – Move To Better Health
Cavalier County - Move to Better Health coalition is located in Cavalier County in the Northeast corner of the state. Members represent Cavalier County Public Health, the Cavalier County Extension Office, Cavalier County Memorial Hospital, the Cavalier County auditor, school personnel, Cavalier County Social Services and community businesses.p>
We are proud to have received the North Dakota Nutrition Council’s Award of Excellence for our Blast off to Better Health Program in 2009.
Our plans for the 2009-10 year include school classroom programs, the Go Red for women heart disease prevention program, and worksite wellness programs.
Fargo: Moving More, Eating Smarter/Cass-Clay Healthy
People Initiative
The MMES Coalition is part of the larger Cass Clay Healthy People Initiative, a collaborative designed to promote and enable residents in Cass County, ND and Clay County, MN to lead an active lifestyle and eat healthier and be “the most healthy residents of the United States by 2020.” Check out www.healthycc.org to view the vision, mission, overall strategies and partners of the Initiative.
Minot Area Team Wellness covers Minot and the surrounding north central area of the state with 50,000 plus residents. Our coalition members include Minot State University, Head Start, Trinity Health, the YMCA, North Dakota State University Extension Service, North Dakota Nutrition for Day Care, the Minot Public School Schools, First District Health Unit and Tobacco Prevention.
Team Wellness has worked with area Farmers Markets to encourage people to purchase fresh produce, care for it and how to prepare and/or preserve it. We are also active with the ND Department of Agriculture’s Going Local initiative. We currently place wellness information in all-weather brochure holders throughout the Minot Park system which available to all residents at no charge.
We started a monthly school newsletter in 2003 covering a variety of health topics that is still well received. The front page is written for elementary students and the back page is for parents/guardians. The newsletter was now has a circulation that includes local and outlying schools, public health nutritionists from across the state and some county public health nurses. Please contact dthorne@nd.gov to request a copy if interested.
Richland County: Moving More, Eating Smarter
The Richland County MMES Coalition serves all citizens of the county, population 16,334. Richland County is located in the extreme southeastern corner of North Dakota and is 33 by 48 miles long. Wahpeton , located in the middle of the county on the Minnesota/ND border, is the largest city in the county and is the County Seat.
Members of our coalition include: Public Health, the NDSU Extension Service with its 4-H, Kinship and Family Nutrition Program and the Richland Co. Tobacco Coordinator.
We are most proud of the Square Foot Gardening project, which helps community members use a small amount of space to grow their own food. We also use life-size fruit and veggie cutouts that 4-H made for us, and think it’s significant that students in Richland County can indentify us out in public!
Our plan for 2009-2010 will include continuing our Square Foot Garden project with new families and expanding our project with the families from last year to include teaching about composting and increasing the size of the gardens.
We have worked to change policies around food and physical activity by helping the 4-H youth groups develop healthy eating/physical activity policies into their projects and meetings.
Williston: Moving More, Eating Smarter
The Williston: Moving More, Eating Smarter coalition operates out of the Upper Missouri District Health Unit, based in Williston. We are located in the Northwest corner of North Dakota and include the counties of Divide, Williams, Mountrail and McKenzie.
We are one of the original MMES community coalitions and have had an active coalition since 1998. Our members come from our school district, the NDSU Extension office, Mercy Hospital, local banks, the Health Unit and the community at large.
We are most proud of our Fruit & Veggie Worksite Challenge. We have been sponsoring this challenge for over 10 years. It’s evolved over the years, but now is challenging business/worksites to form teams and track their Fruit/Veggie intake for four weeks. Business/worksites compete against each other and all receive weekly information with tips, recipes and worksite snack ideas. Small prizes are awarded at the completion of the challenge. Business/worksites report that the challenge is a fun and behavioral challenge for worksite health. In 2010, Williston had 35 teams participating in the challenge. We also offer the Challenge in Crosby, Stanley and Watford City.
Other activities we sponsor include a fruit and veggie taste test for elementary students. We have offered blackberries, sweet potato fries, star fruits, snow peas and many other fruits and veggies. We coordinate this activity with the school’s food service director and the fruits/veggies are offered at their lunch time. Parents report that their students are requesting these items at home. Sweet potato fries have now been added to the lunch menus, as well!
We also sponsor a Nutrition and Physical Activity Carnival for our sixth grade students in Williston. Since beginning this carnival, we’ve had to continually update and change our activities as our students have grown and increased in their nutrition knowledge.
