Working on Wellness Environments
Working on Wellness Environments (WOW-E) is a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension multidisciplinary community development program

Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors to Improve Romeo T. Flores Park with 2021 WOW-E Community Challenge Grant

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Tell us what you think about the Pop-Up Demonstration and Romeo T. Flores Park. Let us know here: tx.ag/parkPopUp (Link will be open between 10/23/2021 at 10:00am – 10/25/2021 at 11:59pm)

The Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors are thrilled to announce they were selected to receive the 2021 WOW-E Community Challenge grant. These are community grants supporting increased physical activity levels and improved access to healthy foods in five Texas counties: Hudspeth, Maverick, Starr, Webb, and Zapata.

The Zapata project provides technical assistance to install temporary crosswalks connecting the Romeo T. Flores Park and activate unused spaces within the park. This offers multiple potential benefits, like increasing pedestrian and cyclist safety, encouraging physical activity, and increasing park usage. This will help Zapata feel more like a connected community by temporarily improving the park’s appearance and encouraging people to use the park more often.

Pop-up projects like this are an important part of community change because they are relatively easy, low-cost, and temporary. These sorts of demonstrations can serve as pilot tests for more permanent and future changes. Feedback from the community is essential for measuring the project’s success. With that information, the Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors can make recommendations to the County Commissioners encouraging similar projects in other Zapata parks.

With assistance from other community members and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Zapata County, the Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors will tackle this project from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 23-24.

“We are incredibly proud that Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Working on Wellness Environments selected the Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors to receive this grant, made possible with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Sammy Luera, Extension Health Agent. “The WOW-E Community Challenge is an initiative to jump-start community efforts utilizing policy, system, and environmental changes and we hope to see wonderful results from our efforts.”

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension WOW-E Community Challenge funds local projects that have one or more of these four goals:

  • Enhance healthier food access and sales
  • Establish health nutrition and physical activity standards in community places
  • Implement efforts to establish new or improved active transportation

The challenge is part of the WOW-E work. They take a collaborative approach promoting increased physical activity levels and improved access to healthy foods. This project prioritizes local solutions and transformative change to health-related challenges in Texas communities. To learn more about the WOW-E Community Challenge, visit wowe.tamu.edu/pse/wowecc. 

Football, Fall, and Farm to School

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By Rebekka Dudensing, PhD

Kids on bales of hay at a pumpkin patch and corn maze.

When we think about October, we usually think about pumpkins, fall leaves, and football games on chilly Friday nights. Fall festivals and Halloween festivities abound. The October calendar is also home to Health Literacy Month, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National Health Education Week, among other awareness events.

One of the fun October events for students is National Farm to School Month. Congress created Farm to School Month in 2010 as a result of advocacy by the National Farm to School Network.[1] Just over a decade later, school children across the U.S. are celebrating farms and trying new foods each October.

Research in Central Texas showed that schools want to serve local foods. While price can be one barrier as farmers need to at least breakeven and schools have tight budgets, the type of product and how it is processed also affects is potential in schools. For example, cut “baby” carrots and broccoli florets require processing but are easier for many schools to prepare and serve.

School bus parked in front of a farmers market

Extension offers suggestions to help school food service professionals incorporate more local foods into school meals. Recommendations include choosing one food and building relationships with farmer suppliers or with existing distributors who may be able to obtain food from local suppliers.

During Farm to School Month, school food service may be helping students taste local products, many of which may be unfamiliar to youth. Teachers may plan field trips that let students explore the farms that produce their foods. They may also invite farmers to visit class. Agriculture is a science that provides countless opportunities for students to learn and grow. And with the USDA recently noting that 10.3 percent of U.S. jobs are in agriculture and related industries, agriculture science is valuable knowledge!

Families can celebrate Farm to School Month too. Visit a farm—pumpkins patches are great this time of year—or visit a farmers’ market and try a new food. If there isn’t time for that, find a local product at your grocery store and try that. Stores often mark local produce and specialty products (jams, pickles, etc.). Maybe you’ll even find a local treat for your fall festival or trick-or-treating. For more information and resources on Farm to School visit here.

National farm to school month logo. Features a person driving a tractor on a page of a book.

[1] Celebrate Farm to School Month. https://assets.website-files.com/5c469df2395cd53c3d913b2d/61103f5761ddcbdcdb02aab4_F2S%20Month%20Fact%20Sheet%202017.pdf

America Walks Annual Community Change Grants

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It’s that time of year! America Walks annual Community Change Grants are now open for applications. This beloved program aims to provide support to our growing network of advocates, grassroots organizers, organizations, and agencies using innovative, engaging, and inclusive programs and projects to create tangible change at the community level.

They are looking to fund projects that:
• Increase physical activity and active transportation in a specific community
• Work to cross engage people and organizations newer to the efforts of walking and moving and walkability
• Demonstrate a culture of antiracism and inclusive health and design
• Support and cultivate connected, active and deeply engaged communities

Learn more at https://americawalks.org/programs/community-change-grants/

Youth Planning Workshop

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Every Wednesday in June, the Working on Wellness Environments team hosted a virtual youth planning workshop. The workshop included 9 youth from Webb and Zapata county. The workshop sought to ignite youth-led projects in both counties that increased physical activity levels, healthy environments, and connectivity to everyday places. Each webinar provided the opportunity for youth to identify ways to make healthy changes in their community.

Throughout the webinars, participants defined PSE and its role in transforming communities and learned about creating walkable communities and healthy environments. Participants also completed a brief ease-impact where they identified meaningful ways to complete their assessments. The youth involved were able to meet with experts in the field who showcased their work in creating healthy environments. These instructors’ presentations included using secondary data, intercept surveys, site inventory importance, CPTED, and counting when making community changes. Participants also had a chance to listen to another successful youth group that had reclaimed their park. At the final workshop, participants were able to discuss potential projects they could do in their local communities moving forward.

Rise & Grind Zapata Challenge

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Zapata County Health Agent, Sammy Luera hosted the Rise & Grind Bike Challenge in Zapata county. Local participants were encouraged to ride their bikes to local coffee shops in the area. The Working on Wellness Environments team supported this effort by providing an online community assessment. The assessment created was used to assess the local environment for walkability and bikeability. Information gathered will be used to help guide local programming, outreach, and planning efforts. Those who participated were able to inform the WOW-E program about their perceptions of biking and walking in Zapata county.