As part of the grant entitled “CIS Eats Smart and Moves More”, the Cleveland County Health Department in partnership with Cleveland County’s Communities In Schools will offer a walking club, fun runs, nutrition classes and parent education for students and families of students in four elementary, two intermediate and three middle schools. The programs will be delivered during and after school. The program will also be offered to pregnant and parenting teens enrolled in the CIS Teen Parent Program. The educational programming will support policies at the schools that require physical activity and nutrition education.

Health Director Dorothea Wyant stated, “Cleveland County Health Department is very fortunate to receive the Eat Smart, Move More grant again for 2010-2012.   Working with our community partners, we are moving toward our vision of ‘Creating a Healthy Place to Live Today and Tomorrow’”.  

For the first time, the Eat Smart, Move More NC community grants are being awarded for a two-year cycle to study the impact the grants are having in the communities that receive them. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded funding in the fall of 2009 to the N.C. Division of Public Health’s Physical Activity and Nutrition Branch to work with East Carolina University’s Department of Public Health in evaluating the program. Cleveland County will receive funding for program implementation in 2010-2011 and for data collection in 2010-2012.

North Carolina ranks 14th in the nation in overweight and obese adolescents. The percentage of children and adults who are overweight or obese rises each year and despite advances in medicine, the current generation of children may be the first to live shorter lives than their parents. Eat Smart, Move More NC strives to reverse this trend by making the healthy choice the easy choice.

The N.C. Division of Public Health funded 20 county/district health departments for the two-year grant cycle. The Eat Smart, Move More NC Community Grants support the Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina movement and Eat Smart, Move More: North Carolina’s Plan to Prevent Overweight, Obesity and Related Chronic Diseases, the state’s obesity prevention plan. This plan emphasizes strategies that make healthier eating and increased physical activity easier to achieve by, for example, adding walking paths in neighborhoods or around schools, or changing what foods a school can serve both at lunch and for after-school snacks. 

“Making our schools and after school programs, our neighborhoods and our places of worship supportive of healthy eating and active lifestyles is important so that kids learn these habits early and carry them into adulthood,” said State Health Director Dr. Jeff Engel. “It also means each generation of kids gain the benefit of these more sustainable changes to our communities.”

All the funded projects are described on the Eat Smart, Move More NC Web site at www.EatSmartMoveMoreNC.com. Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina is a statewide movement that promotes increased opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity wherever people live, learn, earn, play and pray. The movement is led by a coalition of more than 60 organizations. For more information on the Eat Smart, Move More NC movement or to find out how your community can promote healthful eating and physical activity, visit www.EatSmartMoveMoreNC.com on the Web. 

The Cleveland County Health Department has an outstanding reputation for the provision of high quality services and has participated in successful community collaborations to reduce and prevent childhood overweight and obesity including the coordination of multi-level, comprehensive community programs at childcare centers, schools, worksites, and faith community settings.  Perhaps the most innovative project has been has been the installation of digital menu boards in the cafeterias of the middle and high schools in the county accompanied by a supplemental nutrition education curriculum for 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students.  Several of numerous additional strategies include the establishment of Mobile Farmers’ Markets; community walking routes with appropriate signage in uptown Shelby and Kings Mountain; support of community walking programs such at the Step One Challenge and National Walk to School Day; and advocacy for healthy nutrition and physical activity policies within childcare centers, schools, worksites, and our faith-based communities.  Because the Cleveland County Health Department is selective in applying for grants and careful to choose evidence-based programs for use in grant-funded programs, it has achieved remarkable success in its ability to sustain programs and services with strong collaboration from community partners. 

For more information on Cleveland County’s project, contact Joyce King at 704-484-5138 or joyce.king@clevelandcounty.com.