February News from the Food & Health Network

Our Member Spotlight for the month of February is the Chenango County Department of Public Health. Tom Lewis, FaHN VISTA, sat down with Christina Arnold, a Health Educator with the Department of Public Health, at her office in Norwich, NY to learn more about the work her agency is doing in Chenango County.

Currently in New York State there are 62 unique health departments, with one in every county across the state. Each department’s focuses are different, and are based on the individual health concerns of the population’s they serve. Based off of information found in Chenango County’s Community Health Assessment, currently 16.8% of the population lives below the federal poverty limit. Nearly 37% of adults and 20% of children are obese in the county, and according to Feeding America, 11.9% of the population is food insecure.

Promoting nutrition and healthy lifestyles:
Addressing chronic diseases is a major priority for the Health Department, and we spent some time discussing different programs being used to promote nutrition, and prevent obesity. Christina shared that, “we touch on nutrition in a lot of different ways during the year," with a lot of attention focused on on obesity prevention. They currently receive support from the Chobani Corporation, which last year helped to launch a project with the Health Department called The Chobani Challenge. The program is a fitness initiative, and over 200 participants on 36 teams competed in exercise competitions aimed at improving individual health outcomes. Christina added her division is working on an obesity prevention initiative for kids with UHS Hospital called Stay Healthy Kids. The objective of that program is to reduce the number of obese school-age children in Chenango County, by educating them how to get fit and remain healthy. In addition to that work, Christina explained that they are also out in the community where they "talk about nutrition in many health fairs, and about (USDA’s) MyPlate with the kids, and also go into the classroom to talk about nutrition programs”.

To read our full interview with the Chenango County Health Department visit our Food for Thought blog by clicking here. Additionally, check out their Website here, or click here to go to their Facebook page.

FaHN Helps to Host MLK Day Poverty Simulation

We collaborated with the Rural Health Service Corps and the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Speakers Bureau to coordinate a successful poverty simulation with a combined theme of food and racial justice. The simulation was held for students from Binghamton University’s Hinman College in honor of Martin Luther King Day.

Close to 100 total participants came out to take part in the event, which aimed to simulate the lived experiences of low-income and food-insecure families. The simulation also sought to highlight some of the structural obstacles to socioeconomic mobility, personal health, happiness, and employment.

To read more about the poverty simulation visit our Food for Thought blog by clicking here.

Food & Farm Policy

The John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future hosted a webinar in early January titled "Finding Our Way Through the Political Fog: What's Next for Food Policy in America", which discussed how the 2016 election results will impact food and farm policy priorities. Watch a recording of the webinar by clicking here.

The Root Cause Coalition hosted a webinar on advocacy titled, "Advocating for Social Determinant Interventions in Uncertain Times". You can hear a recording of the webinar by clicking here.

2016 Public Policy Priorities: Check out the key policy priorities that Hunger Solutions New York, the John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, and the National Sustainable Agricultural Coalition will be working on over the next year.

Member Spotlight: Chenango County Health Department

FaHN Helps to Host MLK Day Poverty Simulation

Food & Farm Policy

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