Nutrition committee hopes to target more Henry County restaurants

By MEGAN COOPER

Mt. Pleasant News

Healthy Henry County Communities nutrition committee has been making many strides and will push even harder this year.

During its regular HHCC board meeting Tuesday, July1, the board discussed the many things that it has helped to implement over the last year in Henry County.

?Our nutrition committee has been doing a lot,? said HHCC Coordinator Kelly Carr. ?We have a lot planned for the upcoming year and need more help.?

According to Carr, the committee has five goals it works on throughout the year in order to make Henry County a healthier place.

?Our first goal is to encourage restaurants to offer more healthy choices, to identify which choices are healthy and to provide nutritious information,? explained Carr. ?Examples of this would be the Your Plate. Your Health initiative that was instituted at Short Stop in New London, Tazza Bella, Mt. Pleasant Golf and Country Club and Pad Thai.

?This year, the committee will be targeting Little Mexico, who will be debuting a new menu on July 9, and Keo?s, who is still in the works on a new menu. The committee hopes to get at least two more restaurants on board. The second goal is to increase the number of healthy options in concession stands and Winfield-Mt. Union Community School District has already done this by offering items like apple juice and yogurt,? said Carr.

The next goal, said Carr, is to encourage increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.

?We are planning to implement the Pick a Better Snack and Act bingo cards at W-MU this fall,? said Carr. ?We also supported the start-up of school gardens at the Mt. Pleasant Community School District.?

Another goal of the committee is to encourage schools to provide adequate time for children to eat lunch.

?We talked to W-MU and they have already adjusted their schedule,? said Carr. ?We haven?t contacted other schools yet.?

According to board member Lisa Oetken, there isn?t enough time for kids to eat lunch.

?Some of them aren?t even eating lunch, or they have to eat it quickly,? said Oetken. ?It?s something that definitely needs to be looked at, especially at Mt. Pleasant.?

The fourth goal of the committee is to increase and inform about healthy food options at county events.

?We have been a vendor at the county fair for three years,? said Carr. ?We have been at Old Threshers for two and we are starting to look at other county events. We just want people to see the different options.?

The final goal of the committee is to teach residents to plan ahead and prepare meals at home that are easy and low-cost.

?We are working on updating the cooking class resource guide to include information about community gardens and farmers market,? explained Carr. ?But this one is a little tricky because other options are easier to access. We are going to continue our discussion on planning short cooking clips on TVs in school lobbies and encouraging demonstrations at the Mt. Pleasant farmers market.?

HHCC discussed its upcoming 15-year anniversary that will be taking place, as of right now, in the middle of October. This will coincide with the Healthy Halloween Walk.

?We talked about having a softball tournament,? said board member Travis Johnson. ?We want to allow people to form a team of their own and come out and play. It doesn?t have to be competitive and it could be church groups, co-workers etc. Just a day to get out and have fun.

?This would also be during the Healthy Halloween Walk so we could set up signs detailing what we (the board) have done,? said Johnson.

Following the discussion of the 15-year anniversary, board member Cherry Sandeen discussed an event that will be taking place in November for student athletes.

?On Nov. 14 we are going to have a program for student athletes, it will be a holistic approach to sports and we want our students who attend to become leaders and take what they learn back with them,? said Sandeen. ?We have Dan Gable as a keynote speaker, Dr. Tansey will be there, Elise Klopfenstein and much more. If we have students who are interested that aren?t in sports, we won?t turn them away.?

Right now, WMU, WACO and New London have committed students to attend the event, which will be held on the Iowa Wesleyan campus.

?It?s not just about strength training. It?s about how to plan for college sports as well,? said Sandeen. ?It gives them a realistic idea so they can plan for when that happens. If anyone can help get others on board, that would be terrific.?

Sandeen had spoken with the Mt. Pleasant Community School District, but it hasn?t committed to attending, which upset some of the HHCC board members.

?I feel it?s important for those students to attend,? said Oetken. ?I think it?s ridiculous that Mt. Pleasant isn?t on board. I want our students to take part in this and I know my child will. I say we recommend this to them (Mt. Pleasant High School). They haven?t been a player in a lot of what we do.?

The event will run from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and will provide a free lunch for those in attendance. Also, it will be structure so that attendance is taken and students will be accounted for throughout the program.

The Neon Stampede will be taking place on Friday, July 18, with registration beginning 6:30 p.m. at McMillan Park and will run until 7:30 p.m.

?We have 132 people signed up for it already,? said Sandeen. ?We will have lots of glow sticks, snacks and drinks for the event as well. The race will begin at 8 p.m.?

The final event for HHCC will be the softball tournament, which takes place on Aug. 23, with a rain date of Aug. 24.

Healthy Henry County Communities will meet again in regular session on Tuesday, Aug. 5, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Health Education Center at HCHC.