Washington, Dallas counties honored for public health excellence

More than 500 public health professionals are gathered in Ames today and tomorrow for the Iowa Governor's Conference on Public Health. During the event, two Iowa counties will be honored by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) Iowans Fit for Life program for their outstanding work in promoting the health and wellbeing of their counties' residents.

The Dallas County Board of Health is receiving the Excellence in Nutrition award. The county is currently working to provide more healthy vending options to county employees, using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey - Vending (NEMS-V) to assess vending machines located in county buildings. Using the NEMS-V criteria, it was determined of the six vending machines located within county buildings, none offered any snacks categorized as ‘healthy' (yellow) or ‘healthiest' (green). As a result, in December of 2011, the Dallas County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution requiring food and beverages sold in vending machines on Dallas County property offer a minimum of 30 percent healthier choices, as determined by NEMS-V.

The Washington County Board of Health is receiving the Excellence in Physical Activity award for their Obesity Prevention task force efforts. The task force has assisted three communities in implementing the Iowans Walking and Logistics Kit (I-WALK), which addresses issues surrounding children's ability to walk and bike to school. The first community to complete the I-WALK process, Kalona, secured a Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant to improve the walkability of their community and also adopted elements of a Complete Streets policy to ensure pedestrian and bicycle issues are routinely addressed. The momentum from the Kalona project has spurred two additional communities, Washington and Wellman, to address walkability this spring.

For more information on NEMS-V, visit

www.nems-v.com/. For information on assessing walkability within your community, visit

www.idph.state.ia.us/iowansfitforlife/common/pdf/access_your_community.pdf. For more information on Iowans Fit for Life, visit

www.idph.state.ia.us/iowansfitforlife/community.asp