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In an effort to reduce the staggering rise in obesity rates, the Cook County Department of Public Health has distributed $4 million in grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aimed at making local communities healthier places to live.
A total of 41 agencies in suburban Cook County received portions of that grant. Locally, the city of Berwyn received $140,000 to promote healthier forms of transportation like walking and cycling, and Morton High School District 201 received $125,000 dollars to promote healthier lifestyles for its students.
“We want to implement policies at the local level so healthier choices are the easier ones to make,” said Amy Poore, a spokeswoman for the county health department. “It’s a different way of approaching public health, where instead of one-on-one level change, it’s at the community level to really change the environment in ways that will help reduce obesity.”
Nicole Campbell, Berwyn’s traffic engineer, said the grants were only officially rewarded last month, and the city hasn’t made specific plans for its grant money. However, those funds are likely to go into finding ways to promote cycling, make Berwyn more pedestrian-friendly and impove safety and conditions in area parks to make healthy living easier.
The city will receive technical assistance from specialized agencies like the Active Transit Alliance and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to study and implement improving healthy transportation.
“We’re trying to make our city more bike- and pedestrian-friendly, and we’d love to have people walk to school and use the parks more,” Campbell said. “It all builds on top of each other.”
Although the grant does not cover major engineering or construction costs, the city still will be studying larger changes to its infrastructure. The grant will cover small-scale changes, such as bike parking and street signage.
“There will be things that we can do in the immediate future and things we can do five or 10 years out like bike lanes and things of that sort,” Campbell added.
While bike lanes may be further down the road, Berwyn’s cycling community would certainly welcome the change.
“The more bike-friendly, the better,” said Dan Schwanderlik, a third-generation co-owner of Dan’s Bike Shop on Roosevelt Road. “There are more and more of our customers riding their bikes to work. I think it would also be better in terms of selling homes and the real estate market.”
In an effort to reduce the staggering rise in obesity rates, the Cook County Department of Public Health has distributed $4 million in grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aimed at making local communities healthier places to live.
A total of 41 agencies in suburban Cook County received portions of that grant. Locally, the city of Berwyn received $140,000 to promote healthier forms of transportation like walking and cycling, and Morton High School District 201 received $125,000 dollars to promote healthier lifestyles for its students.
“We want to implement policies at the local level so healthier choices are the easier ones to make,” said Amy Poore, a spokeswoman for the county health department. “It’s a different way of approaching public health, where instead of one-on-one level change, it’s at the community level to really change the environment in ways that will help reduce obesity.”
Nicole Campbell, Berwyn’s traffic engineer, said the grants were only officially rewarded last month, and the city hasn’t made specific plans for its grant money. However, those funds are likely to go into finding ways to promote cycling, make Berwyn more pedestrian-friendly and impove safety and conditions in area parks to make healthy living easier.
The city will receive technical assistance from specialized agencies like the Active Transit Alliance and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to study and implement improving healthy transportation.
“We’re trying to make our city more bike- and pedestrian-friendly, and we’d love to have people walk to school and use the parks more,” Campbell said. “It all builds on top of each other.”
Although the grant does not cover major engineering or construction costs, the city still will be studying larger changes to its infrastructure. The grant will cover small-scale changes, such as bike parking and street signage.
“There will be things that we can do in the immediate future and things we can do five or 10 years out like bike lanes and things of that sort,” Campbell added.
While bike lanes may be further down the road, Berwyn’s cycling community would certainly welcome the change.
“The more bike-friendly, the better,” said Dan Schwanderlik, a third-generation co-owner of Dan’s Bike Shop on Roosevelt Road. “There are more and more of our customers riding their bikes to work. I think it would also be better in terms of selling homes and the real estate market.”
For District 201, the grant will be an opportunity to improve students’ healthy living opportunities and curriculum, district spokesman Eric Kohn said.
Potential projects for Morton high schools include starting a healthy school council, increasing the amount of intramural sports leagues, installing more bike racks and redesigning some health courses.
FAST FACTS
- During the last 20 years, obesity rates in suburban Cook County have doubled for adults and tripled for children.
- More than half the adults in suburban Cook County are obese or overweight, and nearly 40 percent of children suffer the same affliction.
- The number of overweight or obese adults in suburban Cook County alone is greater than the entire population of Montana, which is 974,989, according to the latest U.S. Census estimate.
Source: Cook County Department of Public Health
