BRADENTON — Walking school buses, community gardens and tobacco-free school campuses are ways Manatee County could become a healthier place to live, according to a group of community leaders.
On Tuesday, CHART Manatee, a task force formed to promote healthier lifestyles and battle chronic disease, began brainstorming policy changes in three focus areas: good nutrition, active lifestyles and tobacco-free living.
Several of the CHART Manatee ideas came from committee members who work in related fields. The committee members volunteered for subcommittees to further investigate the ideas.
“They’ve got a fire about doing it,” said moderator Donna Keith, the health department’s community health nursing supervisor. “They’re really committed to working on these things. They see a possibility. It’s nice to work with people who recognize there is something that can be done, and they have a positive attitude about it.”
Following are some of the ideas:
n Physical activity: Walking school buses encourage children to get more exercise. Adult volunteers chaperone large groups of students to school, allowing them to walk longer distances safely.
Other ideas included changes to make public parks more user-friendly and creating more sidewalks.
n Nutrition: The committee discussed following Sarasota’s lead and creating several community gardens where residents could rent a plot and grow their own fruits and vegetables. Members also discussed offering a farmers market at the health department and encouraging restaurants to display nutritional information.
n Tobacco-free living: The county school board is considering making its campuses tobacco-free, and CHART Manatee hopes to encourage that step. The health department has a $140,000 grant that focuses on prevention efforts, and CHART Manatee will work with those parameters.
The 20-member group was created earlier this year after Manatee County became one of 40 communities in the United States to receive a $40,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control through its Action Communities for Health, Innovation and Environmental Change.
CHART Manatee has completed detailed assessments of community organizations in four sectors — schools, work sites, health care and community institutions/organizations — in advance of an Action Institute seminar next week in Tampa.
The committee studied Williams Elementary, county government, Blake Medical Center’s H2U program and the county health department.
The group will use the assessments to create its action plan later this year.
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