Buffalo, NY, to Host Convening for Healthy Community Project
September 18th, 2018 | news
BOSTON, MA – Chosen for its many healthy living initiatives, Buffalo, NY will hold the third annual convening of the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities (CHSC) grantees, hosted by the New York Obesity Prevention Center for Excellence (OPCE). For the past three years, 25 CHSC grantees and their partners have been working with schools, businesses, government, and other groups to ensure that places throughout New York State provide access to healthy foods and beverages and opportunities for physical activity.
The New York OPCE is the resource and support center for CHSC grantee organizations and their community partners. The mission of OPCE is to strengthen the collective impact of CHSC grantees on New Yorkers’ health as they strive to increase access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity. To achieve this mission, OPCE provides training and technical assistance (TA) to CHSC grantees and their partners. OPCE is led by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.
Convening attendees can experience Buffalo’s bike and car shares, visit an urban farm, learn first-hand about Buffalo Public School’s (BPS) wellness efforts, and go to several healthy workplaces such as the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC). As a CHSC partner, BNMC will showcase its demonstration sites for healthy workplaces, including healthy subsidized vending, farm-to-work programs, treadmill and standing desks, and onsite fitness facility equipped with locker rooms and showers.
Buffalo has an active healthy corner store initiative that is a coalition of representatives from various organizations working to increase healthy food retail throughout the city. BPS ensures a “whole school, whole community, whole child” wellness approach. In 2017, the district passed its policy focused on increasing student access to healthy foods, implementing farm-to-school, bringing back recess for elementary schools, encouraging joint-use projects that allow community access to physical activity facilities, and supporting employee wellness.
CHSC is a five-year (2015-2020) public health initiative of the New York State Department of Health to reduce major health risk factors of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases in 80 high-need school districts and associated communities. OPCE is led by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI), as the resource and support center for all grantees.
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Creating Healthy Schools and Communities
