Tulsa gets grant to improve healthy food, exercise options

The grant from the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust is one of 15 being awarded throughout the state, totaling $1.35 million from the Communities of Excellence Nutrition and Fitness program. Mayor Dewey Bartlett announced the grant Tuesday morning at a Get Lean Tulsa event. The ultimate goal is to reduce the state’s obesity rate by creating communities where healthy food is available and there are plenty of opportunities for improving physical fitness, said Pam Rask, division manager of health promotion research for the Tulsa City-County Health Department. “We really want to make a difference in the community,” she said. “There’s so much to do.” The $90,000 grant will be used to build on existing programs in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. Organizers will use socioeconomic data to find policy issues that need to be addressed. There is also a focus on working with existing groups to augment strategies already in place, Rask said. “There’s a lot of stakeholders and we’ll leverage all those partnerships to put this project together,” she said. After 15 months, the agencies’ plans will be evaluated and organizers could receive as much as $500,000 a year for four years to implement the proposed strategies. The Family Health Coalition in Tulsa, which is part of the Community Service Council, will receive the funding and work on the assessment and development of the plan. Colleen Ayres-Griffin, a planner with the Community Service Council, said the grant is designed to help communities focus on the big picture. “The excitement to me is this is a grant that’s looking at the entire system,” she said. The length of time to create the plan is also helpful, because it will allow planners to study the underlying issues and policies that stand in the way of a healthier community, Ayres-Griffin said. “We’ll be able to look at what makes it hard for people to be healthy,” she said.

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