September 2007

News from the PAN Branch

The PAN Branch Welcomes New Staff

Marie Shelton has accepted the position as Healthy Weight Communications Specialist in the PAN Branch, previously held by Bithiah Lafontant. Marie comes to the Branch from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she served as a Health Communications Fellow. As part of her fellowship, Marie was the lead developer of social marketing and strategic planning for CDC’s fruits and vegetables program, re-branding the fruits and vegetables Web site, and developing the nutrition coordinator’s guidance for the roll-out of Fruits & Veggies—More Matters™, among other projects. Prior to joining CDC, Marie worked at UNC-CH as a study coordinator, taught human nutrition at Cabarrus College, and worked as a community income manager for the American Cancer Society.

Marie is a certified Master Fitness Specialist and a Registered Dietitian. Marie stays fit by running and practicing yoga, and dabbles in painting with acrylics on canvas. Marie can be contacted at Marie.Shelton@ncmail.net.

Programs, Projects and Initiatives

NC Fruits & Veggies Nutrition Symposium is a Big Success

Charlotte – More than 130 fruit and veggie nutrition advocates attended the 2007 N.C. Fruits & Veggies Nutrition (formerly NC 5 A Day) Coalition Symposium held on August 8, 2007 at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte. The mission of the Coalition is to promote better health for all North Carolinians by increasing their fruit and vegetable consumption. The health and community professionals who attended this years Symposium work at the state and local level to help accomplish this mission whether it be in a worksite, community, school, hospital, foodservice establishment, agricultural setting or the media.

This annual Symposium provides Coalition members and partners with an opportunity to build skills and to form new partnerships. This year’s theme—Making the Healthy Choice Accessible, Easy and Fun —was really brought to life by the variety of speakers, exhibitors and award winners featured. To learn more about the Symposium and the 2007 Fruits & Veggies Star Award winners, visit www.fruitsandveggiesnc.com to view the articles and pictures.

North Carolina Association of Local Nutrition Directors (NCALND) Launches New Website

NCALND is an association of public health nutrition leaders that work locally to promote good nutrition and health for low-income residents of North Carolina. NCALND promotes good nutrition and health in communities by establishing linkages and partnerships with key agencies and organizations with an impact on nutrition.

The NCALND is proactive in issues concerning public health nutrition, encouraging/participating in research efforts, and advocating and or/planning appropriate training for public health personnel.

Please visit NCALND’s new website at www.ncalnd.org If you are interested in working with NCALND or if you have any questions please contact NCALND President, Doris Jefferson at doris.jefferson@alamance-nc.com or Pamela Rock at prock@tcchc.com.

Success Stories

Person County Wins Worksite Wellness Award

Person County’s Worksite Wellness team was one of the proud recipients of the Ralph Ketner Employee productivity awards presented last week at the North Carolina Association of County Commissioner’s Association annual meeting. The awards are presented each year at the Association’s Annual Conference, giving all North Carolina county leaders the opportunity to see what local county employees are doing to improve productivity. To date, the Ketner Award program has attracted 1,273 project applications representing over $96 million in savings to North Carolina counties.

The application was submitted for calendar year 2006-07, the third year of the wellness team reorganization, on behalf of wellness team members, Leigh Ann Creson (Health), Rebecca Morrow (Public Works), Rhonda Long (Transportation), Angie Warren (Human Resources), Yuvette Farmer (Person Industries), Bess Hester-Whitt (Cooperative Extension), and former employee Beth Witherspoon (DSS).

The committee was proud to represent Person County along with County Manager, Steve Carpenter, County Clerk, Faye Fuller, Commissioners Johnny Lunsford, Jimmy Clayton, Larry Bowes and Kyle Puryear at the NCACC meeting in Fayetteville.

Committee members all agree that the teamwork provided by all members of the team as well as the proactive support from Steve Carpenter, and their commissioner team was a great boost to their application. A copy of all winning applications can be found online.

Growing Minds Farm to School Program/Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP)

The Growing Minds Farm to School program, part of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) in Asheville, NC, strives to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships between farms and schools that create dynamic, wellness-focused learning environments for children. They do this by working with farmers, educators, and communities to serve local food in schools, while expanding opportunities for farm field trips, experiential nutrition education and school gardens. Currently at least one of these four components is being implemented in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey County, as well as Asheville City Schools.

As part of a small non-profit, the Growing Minds program work is primarily grant funded and concentrated in specific projects each year.

Highlights of their work for 2007 include:

• Head Start- Implement the four components of farm to school at a head start center in Henderson County.
• Farm Field Trip Workshop and test trips
• Community organizing for farm to school in Henderson County
• Providing resources through the web (www.growing-minds.org)
• Chef training
• Facilitate a regional farm to school committee
• Ongoing support of school gardens, experiential nutrition education
• Building connections to serve local food in area schools
• Received grants: SSARE R&E – Farm to School market research and UPS - Farm to School Distribution
• Partnership with the Council on Aging
• Regional Lead Agency for the National Farm to School Network

ASAP, in collaboration with Community Farm Alliance (CFA) in Kentucky, was selected to represent and coordinate activities and partnership for the southeast for the National Farm to School Network. The National Farm to School Network has received support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to focus on five key areas – policy, networking, media and marketing, information services and training and technical assistance to support the farm to school movement in the country. The Network is jointly coordinated by the Center for Food & Justice and the Community Food Security Coalition. ASAP is looking forward to working with state partners in NC, SC, GA, FL and KY on the National Farm to School Network.

For more information contact Emily Jackson of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project at: emily@asapconnections.org

Featured Resources and Research

Making It Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories is Now Searchable and Live on DASH Site!

Visit the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) Web site.

The on-line searchable version of Making it Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories is now available. Making It Happen!, a joint publication of U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Food Nutrition Services and Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the support of the Department of Education celebrates the bold steps that many schools and school districts have taken to increase the availability of healthy foods outside of school meal programs. Making It Happen! describes six different approaches that schools and school districts can use to successfully improve the nutritional content of foods served to students such as marketing the healthy food choices and using fundraising activities and rewards that support student health.

You can access it directly at this link.

NEW NC Burden of Cardiovascular Disease Document Available

The August 2007 update to "The Burden of Cardiovascular Disease in North Carolina" is now available on the Start With Your Heart website.

Heart Healthy and Stroke Free: A Social Environment Handbook

CDC’s Division of Heart Disease and Heart Prevention has a new resource you might be interested in! Heart Healthy and Stroke Free: A Social Environment Handbook includes specific strategies for identifying barriers and promoters for heart-healthy and stroke-free living in local environments. It is written for a broad audience (e.g. concerned community and state leaders along with public health professionals) and is unique in that it focuses on the connections between the social environment and the prevention and treatment of heart disease and stroke. All of the specific examples, tables, and worksheets relate directly to heart disease and stroke risk factors, prevention challenges, and treatment issues.

The chapters in this handbook are organized into three sections.

The first section discusses three aspects of the social environment that are important for heart-healthy and stroke-free communities:

1. Availability of preventive and medical services, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
2. Heart-healthy living, specifically physical activity, smoking, and food environments.
3. Quality of life issues, such as employment, housing, and social cohesion.

The second section focuses on practical community assessment methods such as windshield surveys, key informant interviews, and library resources.The third section provides blank copies of worksheets that can be photocopied along with a list of resources.

Copies may be requested by sending an e-mail to mailto:ccdinfo@cdc.gov. Please direct inquiries about the handbook to Michele Casper at MCasper@cdc.gov

Legislation

No updates this month

Grants/Awards

Funding Opportunity for Elementary Schools

Hidden Valley® Announces Expanded Love Your Veggies™ Grant Campaign Elementary School in Every State to Receive $10,000 Grant to Promote Fresh Vegetable Consumption

On July 23, 2007 – The makers of Hidden Valley® ranch dressings, owned by announced it will be awarding more than a half million dollars in grants next year to elementary schools nationwide to support increased access to, and consumption of, fresh vegetables during lunch. The grant program – the Love Your Veggies™ Nationwide School Lunch Campaign – was created to help schools implement a recent federally mandated local wellness policy that requires schools to develop and execute programs to improve their students’ overall health and nutrition, and in response to the overwhelming shortage of funds available for the execution of these programs.

Applying for a Grant: All interested schools must apply for a Love Your Veggies grant online at www.LoveYourVeggiesGrants.com. Schools can apply for a grant beginning Aug. 1, and applications will be accepted through Nov. 30, 2007. Grant recipients will be selected by representatives of Hidden Valley, SNA and PBH, and announced in March 2008 during National Nutrition Month.

National Institutes of Health Grant: Title: School-Based Interventions to Prevent Obesity (R21)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement encourages the formation of partnerships between academic institutions and school systems in order to develop and implement controlled, school-based intervention strategies designed to reduce the prevalence of obesity in childhood. This initiative also encourages evaluative comparisons of different intervention strategies, as well as the use of methods to detect synergistic interactions between different types of interventions.

Deadline Date: This is a recurring program with three grant cycles:

• February 16
• June 16
• October 16

Expiration Date: November 2, 2007, unless reissued

Eligible organizations: For-profit or non-profit, organizations, public or private institutions, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, and laboratories, units of State and local governments, eligible agencies of the Federal government, domestic or foreign institutions/organizations, faith-based or community-based organizations, Indian/Native American Tribal Government.

For details, visit this site.

Training and Professional Development

Nutrition and Physical Activity Teleconferences

Every month, the CDC Division of Nutrition & Physical Activity (DNPA) sponsors a monthly teleconference on a variety of topics, but mostly dealing with nutrition &/or physical activity. The calls are scheduled the 2nd Thursday of each month from 1:30-2:30 p.m. The topic for the September 13, 2007, call is “Working Together to Meet the Needs of People with Disabilities” presented by James Rimmer, PhD, Director of the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability, National Center on Physical Activity and Disability. Anyone who would like the handouts or participate in future calls please send an email to NC5ADAY@ncmail.net.

Society for Public Health Education’s (SOPHE) 58th Annual Meeting

Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity
October 31 – November 3, 2007
Alexandria, VA

SOPHE is pleased to be partnering with CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH 2010) program and Eta Sigma Gamma for its 40th Annual Meeting.

Sub-themes include health systems change; social determinants of health and transdisciplinary approaches to health education; health communications, health literacy and technology; cultural competence in bridging differences, and; evaluation and dissemination of evidence-based approaches.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email Cynthia Crocker at ccrocker@cdc.gov.

2007 American Public Health Association’s (APHA) Annual Meeting

Washington, D.C.
November 3-7, 2007

The American Public Health Association’s (APHA)Annual Meeting & Exposition is the premier Public Health Educational Forum! Learn from the experts in the field, hear about cutting edge research and exceptional best practices, discover the latest public health products and services, and share your public health experience with your peers. The world of public health is in continual motion, and there is no better time to stay abreast of the research and learn about emerging issues.

The APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition is the oldest and largest gathering of public health professionals in the world, attracting more than 13,000 national and international physicians, administrators, nurses, educators, researchers, epidemiologists, and related health specialists. APHA’s meeting program addresses current and emerging health science, policy, and practice issues in an effort to prevent disease and promote health. APHA has a world of public health in store for you. For more information go to the APHA website.

22nd Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference

November 9 - 11, 2007

Join 600+ farmers, educators, extension agents, consumers, and agriculture professionals for a weekend of workshops, wonderful meals, inspiring keynote address, and loads of fun! More info to come - mark your calendars and stay tuned! For more information visit www.carolinafarmstewards.org.