Young children need fruits and vegetables daily to support healthy growth and brain development. A new study found that in the week prior, many Texas children did not eat a fruit or a vegetable daily and regularly drank sugary drinks. Learn what parents and caregivers can do. https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/features/nutrition-month/index.html
The goal of the farm to school program is to bring local foods to the school cafeteria and agricultural education to K-12 students, encouraging children to make healthy food choices and inspiring sustainable connections to local food, while helping to boost the local economy.
Our planned intervention included the planting of a fruit orchard that is a continuation and enhancement of the existing school garden. This intervention was introduced while searching for options to replace missing local farms.
The Farm to School efforts would not be possible without R.T. Barrera Elementary and its administration. The school has incorporated Farm to school efforts into their Physical Education curriculum. They have also recently started an Ag Club that helps monitor the orchard and ensure that the trees are doing well health-wise.
As a direct result, students also get to learn the practice of farming and preparing their own healthy meals/snacks.
This intervention provides much needed access to healthy produce that is integral for the long-term health of the community and the students. Planting an orchard demonstrates a commitment to community nutrition for the next 20 years and beyond. This proposal provides an ongoing supply of fresh, seasonal fruit at a location and institution that is accessible to much of the local community.
Pictures provided by R.T. Barrera Elementary Principal, Mrs. M. Garcia and Physical Education Coach, Mr. A. Garza. (01/19/2023)
Cuidar de ti misma es una de las cosas más importantes que puedes hacer para ti y tu familia. Una forma de cuidar de ti misma es haciendo actividad física regular. Hacer más actividad física puede ayudarte a dormir mejor, reducir el estrés y reducir tu riesgo de enfermedades del corazón, ataque cerebral, algunos cánceres y diabetes tipo 2.
Nos estamos uniendo a otras organizaciones locales y nacionales para apoyar a la campaña Moving Matters, parte de la iniciativa Gente Activa, Nación Sana™ (Active People, Healthy Nation™), para ayudar a promover los beneficios de la actividad física, motivar a las personas a encontrar pequeñas formas de incluir movimiento en su día y recodarle a las personas que la actividad física puede ser divertida.
Visita https://www.cdc.gov/movernos para aprender más sobre la campaña y explorer maneras para moverte.
Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do for you and your family. One way to do that is to get regular physical activity. Increased physical activity can improve your sleep, reduce stress, and lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, some cancers, and type 2 diabetes.
We are joining other local and national organizations in supporting the Moving Matters campaign, part of the Active People, Healthy Nation℠ initiative, to help promote the benefits of physical activity, encourage people to find small ways to incorporate movement into their day, and remind people that physical activity can be fun.
Visit cdc.gov/MovingMatters to learn more about the campaign and explore ways to get moving!
We know community meetings might draw people in, but they also have inherent limitations. To increase your civic engagement response, you will want to go a step further to get input from different kinds of people.
Enter “pop-up” community engagement. Instead of requiring people to come to you, you should go to where people already gather and meet them when it’s convenient for your participants. Pop-up engagements typically reach underrepresented populations, offer more choices for those who stop by your table, and frequently solicit valuable engagement, input, and results.
Nothing is wrong with town hall-style meetings, but they tend to be overly relied upon and lack efficacy in certain aspects. For example, community meetings are held one at a time and in a location that works for the organizers. This might or might not work for people’s schedules and could require time out of a busy day to attend. If you don’t offer childcare, attendees must either bring children with them, which is potentially disruptive, or figure out childcare on their own.
Community meetings also require sitting and listening, perhaps for 30 minutes or longer, and can be perceived as uninteresting. Finally, these meetings are limited in their variety of attendees; the same people tend to show up time and again. While their thoughts are important, we also want to hear from other people.
Pop-up community engagement solves many of these issues. They can reach more people because you go to people where they are at multiple times and places. This means reaching individuals that might not traditionally attend community meetings, for whatever reason. People can spend as much or as little time as they want talking to you and leaving comments – there’s less pressure overall. Even if individuals don’t overtly seem to engage, they can see you were there, trying to get input. It makes an impression and signage can relay web addresses for them to visit at a later time. Pop-up community engagement also offers you the chance to provide important resources and directly answer questions. You might be surprised by the directions your conversations may go.
Now that you know why this style of engagement offers more efficacy than traditional community meetings, where to start? You want to know your why, who, where, what, and when.
Take time to map out your pop-up locations, making sure they are equitably distributed throughout the community. If you plan on using the same posters/signage, have a plan for how you will know which comments came from where. One strategy is to use different color markers by location. Another is to take pictures between pop-up locations.
Be sure to have a sign at your pop-up saying that you’re doing citizen engagement and not trying to sell anything. This will go a long way toward increasing engagement.
Once you’ve had a few rounds of pop-up community locations, take time to analyze the results. Compare them to past meeting results and comments. How are they different? An effective engagement strategy should be a blend of styles that works best for you and your goals, helping meet the needs of the people you serve.
