Health department: Let’s make Manatee residents healthier

BRADENTON — A local health official on Friday called on community leaders to support a task force working to prevent chronic disease and promote healthier lifestyles in Manatee County.

The group was created in March after the county became one of 40 communities nationwide to receive a three-year $40,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control. Donna Keith, Manatee County Health Department’s community health nursing supervisor, told Manatee CEO Roundtable members about the grantees, called Action Communities for Health, Innovation and Environmental Change.

Manatee County, one of 213 counties that applied for the grant, received the federal funding because of its population’s high rate of cancer, stroke and obesity, Keith said. About 50 percent of the county’s population is overweight and more than 25 percent of youth are obese.

“We recognize this can’t be a health department initiative, it has to be a community initiative,” Smith said during the meeting. Attendees included schools Superintendent Tim McGonegal, Sheriff Brad Steube, Circuit Judge Scott Brownell and Manatee Education Foundation Executive Director Mary Glass.

The goal, Smith said, is to have community leaders enact policy changes to improve public health in Manatee.

She noted that all of the county’s hospitals recently went tobacco free. Now the 28-member local task force would like to see Manatee County public buildings, including city hall and civic organizations’ headquarters, follow in the hospitals’ footsteps.

Health officials also want to push to make sure fruits and vegetables are more accessible in local schools and that more tobacco prevention education is available.

“We need to be initiators and leaders, and through our efforts we can make these policy changes,” Smith said.