Lighten Up 2012

Every year The News Herald hosts a weight loss competition for readers.  Competitors are required blog their journey through the New Herald web page, weigh in monthly, and be featured in the newspaper.  Due to this year’s surplus of applicants The New Herald was unable to take all that were interested and has asked the Lake County General Health District to assist them in reaching out to more participants.

The Lighten Up program has been able to pull together many local resources to help support participants.  The Lake County YMCA is offering a free 4 month membership to be used at any of the 3 branches. Additionally, Lake Health has graciously offered to provide participants with free classes through their Wellness Institute.   Last, the Lake County General Health district is managing the weigh-ins for the non-News Herald participants, offering free registered dietitian services, and any additional services deemed necessary to the success of the program.

We are excited that so many local resources are willing to share in this endeavor and hope that these participants can help be an inspiration to all those hoping to make healthy lifestyle changes.

Walmart to Assist With School Nutrition Initiatives

The Lake County General Health District is glad to see another private industry join the fight against obesity.  The Walmart Fondation is donating a total of $9.5 million nationwide to various health promotion and healthy eating initiatives.  One such program, Action for Healthy Kids, a non-profit organization helping schools provide better nourishment for children, will be receiving a grant for $1.5 million.   This grant will be used to help increase access the healthy foods, provide students with nutrition education, and provide 20 state teams with funding to recruit more volunteers and carry out support services. The additional funding will assist in reaching 160,000 children at about 400 schools nationwide. 

Action for Healthy Kids reaches students in all 50 states and has over 20,000 volunteers.  In the 2009-2010 school year the organization reached about 4.5 million students in over 9,000 school districts.  Many of the programs focus on increasing physical activity and healthy eating habits for life.  Volunteer and donation materials can be found on their website, along with information regarding some of their different programs.  

The Lake County General Health District is the representative to the Ohio Action for Healthy Kids Zone 4 efforts on behalf of Lake County.  Visit http://www.ohioactionforhealthykids.org/ to find out you can get involved. 

If you would like more information on the different organizations receiving money for health promotion activities from the Walmart Foundation, you can find that information on their corporate website by clicking here.