Get Healthy Utah News and Blog

Get Healthy Utah, in conjunction with the Utah League of Cities and Towns, is pleased to announce the newest designees of the Healthy Utah Community award. Six cities and towns qualified this spring: Harrisville, Lindon, Price, Providence, Riverdale, and Santaquin.

Harrisville

Harrisville is committed to active living, with walking and biking trails for all its residents. The city also has provided its residents with a community garden. Harrisville has formed partnerships to promote the safe use and disposal of medications. And the city actively trains its first responders on mental health crises and suicide prevention. 

Moving forward, Harrisville has established a community coalition, including the mayor, members of the local health department, and residents. The coalition hopes to engage some local businesses as well. Harrisville plans to conduct a moveability audit to identify and strengthen community access to open lands such as parks, employment, access to shopping, and education.

Lindon City

Lindon has been working hard on building a healthy community! The city has created a master bicycle plan that incorporates a heritage trail system from the mountain to the lake. Lindon also built a pedestrian and biking path to create safe access to four schools. To help its residents have access to healthy food, Lindon has a Farmers Market that accepts SNAP, and has worked to improve its local food pantry. Lindon has also worked to promote mental wellbeing for seniors and teenagers, through a variety of events.

Over the next three years, Lindon is planning to establish a Communities that Care chapter to offer residents classes and resources. The city is going to continue to invest in its Safe Routes to School corridor. And a new annual community event for teenagers will teach about resources for mental health, healthy cooking, and other healthy living strategies.

Price

We love how Price, a smaller city in Utah, leveraged its existing resources to focus on building a healthy community! Price built on an existing coalition to focus its efforts on building a healthy, vibrant downtown district. Price is adding designated bike lanes to its downtown streets. Many departments and partners in Price have been working to promote healthy eating through classes and messaging campaigns. And the city provides boxes to safely dispose of medication.

Leaders in Price are working hard to create an outdoor place where community members can gather and enjoy being outside during all seasons. 

Providence

Providence adopted a sidewalk and lighting ordinance, to create a more pedestrian friendly experience. The city is also modeling healthy workplace strategies, by providing healthy snacks for staff members and encouraging healthy food habits. And the city has provided a box to safely dispose of medications.

Providence has formed a coalition that is working hard to reach out to diverse stakeholders and thoughtfully promote health. The coalition created a community survey and gathered feedback from residents about how to improve the quality of life over the next three years. As part of their health plan, Providence is going to improve Safe Routes to School, and implement new community programs to promote access to healthy food.

Riverdale

We love how Riverdale has implemented several strategies that promote multiple health areas. Riverdale holds a 5k and Half Marathon, which both encourages active living and raises awareness of opioid addiction and underage drinking. The city also holds free classes at the Community Center for residents to learn about healthy eating and stress management. 

To meet the coalition requirement, Riverdale also decided to build on an existing coalition! Riverdale is going to work together with the Bonneville Communities that Care to discuss and promote health strategies. Riverdale is working to offer at least one quarterly community activity for families to get active.

Santaquin

Santaquin has officially adopted an Active Transportation Plan, and provides several community sports programs. The city council worked hard to bring a local grocery store, which will continue to provide many residents with access to healthy food. The city also provides community cooking classes, starting this year. For mental wellbeing, Santaquin provides meals at the senior center. And the city has worked to model good workplace wellbeing practices, by offering free fitness classes to city employees, as well as an Employee Assistance Plan.

Santaquin’s coalition is working to learn more about the best strategies to promote health, by inviting local experts to their meetings. Moving forward, Santaquin is going to provide its residents with more access to nature by developing its trails and parks systems. Santaquin is also expanding programs for residents to connect with each other, through summer parks programs and other events.

Kathleen Britton

Kathleen Britton, SNS has served as the Director of Child Nutrition Programs at the Utah State Board of Education, since February 2014. Ms. Britton began her nutrition work as a Diet Tech. in Cobleskill, NY at a home for the aging. She moved to Park City in 1983 and worked at the University of Utah Dietetic Department with burn and heart patients. She soon found her love of child nutrition and worked as the Director of Child Nutrition Services, Park City School District from 1992-2014. She is very passionate about child nutrition and feels we can all make a difference in a child’s life.

Wow! Has it really been 13 years since the Healthy Hunger Kids Free Act of 2010 passed? This Act helped strengthen nutrition standards for meals and beverages provided through the National School Lunch, Breakfast, and Smart Snacks Programs, affecting 50 million children daily at 99,000 schools.

So, what is next for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) child nutrition programs? By law, USDA is required to develop school nutrition standards that reflect the goals of the most recent edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which found that most kids are consuming too much sugar, sodium, and saturated fat, and not enough fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Hence, the new proposed rule. Here’s what you need to know:

The proposed rule applies to the following child nutrition programs: National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Seamless Summer Option (SSO), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). This also applies to organizations serving American Indian or Alaskan Native children through the schools' programs.

What is the next step? If you would like your opinion heard or would like to express your knowledge on this proposed rule, USDA encourages all interested stakeholders to submit comments by May 10, 2023.

Here are some key points to keep in mind that will be addressed in the proposed rule:

• Limits on added sugar, starting with grain-based desserts, breakfast cereals, yogurts, and flavored milks, and then also a weekly limit as previously done with Child and Adult Care Food Program requirements.
• Options for offering flavored milk.
• Options for grains, of which allow for some enriched grains to be served.
• Sodium reduction.

Helpful resources:

Visit the USDA website. This webpage contains a full description of the proposed provisions in the proposed rule and specifics on proposed provisions for added sugars, milk, sodium and whole grains. There is also a useful comparison chart here: Current Standards vs Proposed Standards, proposed timeline, and a media toolkit.

Kimberly Clevenger

Kimberly Clevenger is an Assistant Professor in Kinesiology and Health Science at Utah State University, with a background in exercise physiology. Her research interests are in the promotion and measurement of physical activity, particularly in children. 

For many, the mention of school recess brings back fond memories like being outside, hanging upside down, or making up new games with friends. These unstructured breaks are an opportunity for children to socialize, practice skills like conflict resolution, be creative, learn and apply learning, be physically active, and participate in spontaneous and free-play. Recess also serves as a much-needed break from academic pressures, the expectations of adults, and the structured and sedentary nature of the school day. It is the unstructured and autonomous nature of recess that sets it apart from other parts of the school day and makes it uniquely beneficial to children’s physical, mental, and social well-being.

In line with recent research, we recommend that all children, kindergarten through 12th grade, be provided at least 30 minutes of daily recess. Children in the United States are scheduled to have about 25 minutes of recess per day, an estimate that has declined over time, and falls short compared to other countries. Because it is often not required, recess time can too easily be reduced when something else comes up like testing or an assembly. This amount of recess is also disturbingly similar to the typical two, 15-minute breaks allotted to working adults. In line with the adage ‘play is the work of childhood,’ recess should be recognized as an essential part of the school day. However, providing high-quality recess is just as important as providing enough recess time. Overcrowding, limited options or equipment for all children regardless of weather, negative exposures like traffic noise, and lack of training for recess supervisors can lead to boredom, injuries, bullying, and other antisocial behaviors. 

While our goal should be to provide sufficient quality recess to all children, youth in middle or high school are often left out of conversations about recess, yet they stand to gain the most from the physical and psychological benefits of recess. Similarly, Black children and those at/below the poverty line get 10 fewer minutes of recess per day than their White or more affluent counterparts. These same children may have less opportunity for free-play outside of school. As stated by Olga Jarrett from Georgia State University, “since children who usually have recess consider it punishment when recess is withdrawn, one could consider that whole segments of the population are being punished daily.” 

We call on parents, educators, and community members to work together to promote positive change in the quality and quantity of recess provided to the children in their communities. However, change can also be made at the state or national level. Currently, no national policy requires schools to provide recess, and Utah is one of 29 states without a codified law in place recommending or requiring recess for school children. Recognizing the unique contributions of recess and ensuring all children have equitable access to these benefits can promote the long-term health and well-being of the children of Utah.

Greg Bell

Greg Bell is the Get Healthy Utah Board Chair. Greg is president of the Utah Hospitals Association, and previously served as lieutenant governor for Utah.

Recent research in Great Britain shows that school children are getting about two-thirds of their calories from “ultra-processed foods (UPFs),” which are heavily processed during their making. UPFs include foods “such as frozen pizzas, fizzy or milk-based drinks, mass-produced packaged bread and many ready meals. Previous research has linked regular consumption of them with obesity and increased long-term risk of health conditions like Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

It’s much the same story in most Northern European nations, and it’s worse in the U.S. The U.K. study found home-packed meals tended to have more UPFs than school lunches because of national nutritional requirements. As the first world’s diet continues to devolve to manufactured foods with little fiber and fewer whole foods, we can expect more disease and obesity.

This is a public health crisis. We must all do what we can to slow the increase, and ultimately reverse the terrible diet our school children and society in general are eating.