Harkin Wellness Grant

Situation:
The Ottumwa community was a recipient of a Harkin Wellness grant. Three of the objectives of the grant were to 1) increase the activity level of children and their families in Ottumwa, 2) increase healthy nutritional choices that impact health and increase the awareness of the benefits of physical activity, and 3) make good nutritional choices to improve the health of children and families.

Response:
As one of the community partners involved in the grant proposal along with Iowa State University Extension, the Ottumwa School district elected to purchase and distribute to the parents of students in all eight elementary schools, in grades one thru six (2,440 students ) in the Ottumwa School District, four extension publications from the Raising Healthy Kids series. The following publications were distributed in October and December of 2005 and February and April of 2006 … NCR 374 “What Parents Can Do”, PM 1884“What Communities Can Do”, PM 1264 “Healthy Snacks” and PM 1950 “Pyramids of Health”.

Impact:
A sampling of the written evaluations returned by the parents to the schools included the following responses to the request: List one thing you learned or something you will do differently as a result of this information:

Instead of chips and pop I will give the kids more vegetables and juice, read more labels, distinguish between food facts and food myths, I will start buying more fruit for the kids to snack on at home, quit buying so much junk food and go more for healthy food and snacks, we have our family meal together at a table in the kitchen away from the TV, keep my kids busy doing activities moving around instead of watching TV, try raisins in my banana muffins and get outside more with my children, eat more fiber, learn the new food pyramid, check for the grams of fiber on food, in our family we are now going to use snack stations so our younger child can get his own nutritious snacks, I will watch fat and eat better, will try to provide more fruits and veggies for my kids and will encourage them to engage in more “fun physical activities”, cook healthy for my family, change some of our snacks, watch those cereal labels, make sure they always have breakfast, try to make exercise a priority and fun! , variety is the key, I will now serve appropriate serving sizes, drink more milk, I will keep focusing on “snack healthy”

A majority of the parents responding indicated that the information was easy to read and understand and that more than one individual in the family read the information. The publication on snacks was mentioned most frequently.

Contact:
Barbara Anderson
Family Nutrition and Health Specialist
Wapello County Extension Office
101 North Court
Ottumwa, Iowa 52501
Phone 641-682-5491; Fax 641- 682-5148
Email bjanders@iastate.edu