OCEAN CITY, MD – : At the end of last month while the Maryland Municipal League conference was being held at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, MD., the Town of Ocean City was awarded the title of a HEAL City as it joins the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the Mid-Atlantic, which champions local government policies that improve access to healthy foods and physical activity in both small and large communities throughout Maryland and Virginia.
Maryland now has the 26th highest adult obesity rate in the nation, according to The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America. Maryland’s adult obesity rate is 29.6 percent, up from 19.6 percent in 2000 and from 10.8 percent in 1990. The HEAL – healthy eating and active living – Cities & Towns Campaign wants all Marylanders to live high quality, healthy lives, and the current rates of obesity and overweight threaten that goal. Overweight and obesity are among the leading risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and some types of cancer. HEAL policies set forth a framework to create a community where all people can make healthy choices to eat nutritious food and be physically active.
“We recognized this as a unique opportunity to incorporate healthy eating and active living policies into our local projects and long-term planning process,” Ocean City Recreation and Parks Director Susan Petito said. “We are excited to become a HEAL Town and maximize free resources that can benefit our citizens and the wellbeing of our entire community.”
Petito thanks the Ocean City Mayor and City Council for recognizing the value of healthy eating and active living in Ocean City with their support of the HEAL Cities initiative, as well as their recognition that Recreation and Parks and other Town Departments offer an exceptional quality of life for our residents and visitors.
“Kudos go to Recreation Superintendent Kate Gaddis and our amazing recreation team in doing the heavy lifting to qualify the Town as a HEAL City. This will continue to be a city-wide team effort involving many members of the Town’s staff to initiate healthy eating and living at our various facilities, as well as tie in the efforts of the Green Team, and other partners,” Petito said.
As part of the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign, the Institute for Public Health Innovation provides free training, support, and technical policy assistance to municipal leaders. This includes analyzing current policies that impact healthy living for citizens, suggesting ways to update such policies to increase access to HEAL, and updating administrative procedures to help make the healthy choice the easy choice for municipal employees. The HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign supports local elected officials to adopt policies that create healthy, prosperous communities. A Healthy Eating Active Living City or Town is a municipality that sets forth a framework or vision to create a community where all people can make healthy choices to eat nutritious food and be physically active.
“At the Institute for Public Health Innovation, we know that creating policies that address healthy living at a local level is critical to addressing the personal, collective, and economic impact of obesity in our region,” said Susan DeFrancesco, director of the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the Mid-Atlantic. “We’re confident we can make great headway by partnering with Ocean City officials to benefit the lives of Ocean City’s residents and employees.”
Participation in the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign is free, thanks to support from the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States. The HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the Mid-Atlantic is part of a growing national campaign that is currently taking place in California, Colorado, and Oregon. The Institute for Public Health Innovation embarked on this initiative in 2012 in strategic partnership with the Maryland & Virginia Municipal Leagues.
About the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the Mid-Atlantic
The Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Cities & Towns Campaign provides free technical assistance and coaching to support municipal officials to adopt policies that improve their community’s physical activity and food environments. Supporting healthy choices is essential to address the obesity epidemic among Maryland and Virginia’s children and adults.
The HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the Mid-Atlantic is part of a growing national campaign that is currently taking place in California, Colorado, and Oregon. The Institute for Public Health Innovation embarked on this initiative with funding from Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States and a strategic partnership with the Maryland & Virginia Municipal Leagues
For more information, visit www.healmidatlantic.org or contact Susan DeFrancesco, director of the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the Mid-Atlantic at (202)747-3512 x1059, 240-252-2016 or at sdefrancesco@institutephi.org. Follow @HEALMidAtlantic on Twitter.
About the Institute for Public Health Innovation
The Institute for Public Health Innovation (IPHi) provides technical capacity, leverages resources, and facilitates collaboration across sectors to develop, implement, and evaluate effective strategies that improve health and quality of life in the DC, Maryland and Virginia region. IPHi is one of the newest institutes within the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), an organization of 38 members throughout the United States and a growing aspect of the national public health infrastructure. To learn more about IPHi, visitwww.institutephi.org.
For more information about the Institute for Public Health Innovation, visit www.institutephi.org like InstitutePHI on Facebook, and follow @institutephi on Twitter.
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