September is Fruits & Veggies – More Matters® Month
“Adding more fruits and veggies to your diet doesn’t have to be expensive,” said DHPE Project Director Cheryl Welbeck. “There are many low-cost or no cost alternatives.” For example, you may add chopped vegetables to pasta sauce or replace your afternoon snack of a bag of chips with an apple. And simple changes like these can really pay off-eating healthy can help lower the risk of many chronic diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Currently, DHPE is implementing a National Implementation and Dissemination to Prevent Chronic Disease Program to increase access to healthy foods through population-based strategies at the community level. This effort focuses on improving nutrition, enhancing community linkages for clinical care, increasing physical activity, improving chronic disease prevention, and reducing tobacco use and exposure through community engagement that supports opportunities to make healthy living easier where people live, learn, work, and play.
This program is part of a larger initiative by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Community Health to demonstrate promising practices other communities can replicate. To learn more about the 47 communities implementing such efforts to improve community health, visit www.bit.ly/Partnering4Health2.
The Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to build on principles and practices of health promotion and education to strengthen public health capacity in policy and systems change, thereby improving the health of all and achieving health equity. DHPE, founded in 1946, is legally known as the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Health Promotion and Public Health Education (ASTDHPPHE). DHPE is located at 1432 K Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005. For more information, visit www.dhpe.org or contact Communications Manager Thometta Cozart at tcozart@dhpe.org.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) provides funding for the project and leads the national conversation to create healthy communities. This grantee program is made possible through a grant provided to DHPE as part of Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DP14-1418: National Implementation and Dissemination for Chronic Disease Prevention.
