Creating Healthy Schools and Communities Grant Celebrates their First Year
In 2020, Erie 1 BOCES received the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities Grant from the New York State Department of Health. This five-year grant intends to coordinate a multi-sector effort to reduce the risk of obesity in high-need communities and school districts. Due to COVID, the grant period began in June 2021 and will continue through 2026.
Kate Huber and her six-person team is facilitating the grant in several local communities and districts. Their intended outcomes are to increase nutrition in schools, create and implement wellness policies for districts and to help community organizations, worksites and municipalities to adopt healthy food standards. Beyond nutrition, the team works to increase the number of schools with Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs and implement policies that promote walking, bicycling and rolling.
This month, Kate and her team are celebrating the end of their first year! They have created a Year End report that chronicles their work, highlights their successes, and follows their efforts into schools and worksites to see how funds were used and lives were made healthier. The report is available to read in the attachment at the bottom of this page.
Though there was much progress made in year one, “our work continues to develop policies and programs that make the healthy choice the easy choice. We look forward to continuing this momentum,” says Kate.