Healthy Communities

SODA FREE SUMMER CAMPAIGN

Join the Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative (BANPAC) for a Soda Free Summer! The campaign challenges you to "Re-think Your Drink" and consider drinking healthier alternatives - like water! The 4th annual Soda Free Summer campaign will be expanded in 2010 beyond the San Francisco Bay Area region to counties throughout the State. Check back at this site to learn how you can join the 2010 Soda Free Summer campaign. Read about the launch of the Soda Free Summer Campaign (2007): Nutritionists Plot Tactics In War On Soda

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES

The Soda Free Summer campaign encourages Alameda County residents to re-think their drinks and consider drinking healthier alternatives. Nutrition Services partners with several Alameda County school districts, community-based organizations, the faith-based and business communities, and health care organizations to distribute the Soda Free Tracking Log that shares facts about sweetened beverages and provides an easy way to track days without a soda.

Teachers: Use these tools and resources to educate your students about how to be sugar savvy:
Sugar Savvy Curriculum
Grades K-5, Grades 6-8, Be Sugar Savvy, Search for the Sugar

Visit http://www.sodafreesummer.org for more information.

HEALTHY LIVING CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE

Hosted in elementary and middle schools, Healthy Living Champions for Change empower parents to become actively engaged in the nutrition and overall health of their families, schools, and communities. During monthly meetings, parents learn about healthy eating and physical activity programs and participate in food demonstrations that focus on healthy food preparation. They also learn the importance of community empowerment, discovering how to become nutrition and physical activity change agents in their schools and neighborhoods.

If you would like to attend a Health Living Champions for Change, here is list of sites, along with dates and times for upcoming meetings. Please join us at a location near you.

SENIOR HEALTHY LIVING COUNCILS

Alameda County, like the rest of the country, is aging. Nutrition Services is addressing nutrition and physical activity among people over 60 by targeting those who attend programs at senior and recreation centers. The seniors actively participate in Health Living Champions for Change, similar to those conducted at schools for parents. The Councils help ensure that conditions exist for older adults to eat healthy and be more active while supporting them in making individual and environmental changes. The Healthy Living Councils empower seniors to lead and effectively take the nutrition education messages and share it with their peers throughout their circle of influence. Check out the dates, times, and locations for a Senior Healthy Living Council near you.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Spreading the "nutrition gospel" throughout Alameda County can only be done with the broad-based support of community partners from the public and private sectors, including the business and faith-based communities, as well as community-based and health care organizations. Nutrition Services builds both skill and capacity with its partners so they are able to promote healthy lifestyles and become strong advocates for environmental changes in the county. To view and download educational resources from Nutrition Services’ community workshops, click here. Read about some of our community partners below.

FAITH-BASED COMMUNITY

Nutrition Services partners with the Faith-based community to promote health messages to clergy leaders and their congregations. Through collaborations with church Health Ministries, Nutrition Services has participated in special health promotions like Soda Free Sunday, nutrition education workshops as well as health fairs.

COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS

Nutrition Services partners with community-based health clinics to reach low-income audiences in Alameda County with important nutrition and physical activity messages. Through a series of train-the-trainer nutrition education workshops, we have trained and equipped community health educators from the West Oakland Health Center, La Clinica de la Raza, and Tibercio Vasquez with important health messages that they communicate to the residents in the communities they serve.

OAKLAND PARKS AND RECREATION

Nutrition Services has joined forces with Oakland Parks and Recreation site directors to train coaches and leaders to promote healthy eating and daily physical activity among youth who access their facilities.