ELLENVILLE – Imagine your child coming home from school and grabbing an apple or some carrot sticks from the fridge. You just picked up the produce from the Ulster County "veggie mobile" that swung through town earlier that day. Or instead of driving, you ride your bicycle down newly created bike lanes on your way to the library.

Those scenarios will hopefully become a reality as part of a $1.01 million grant award for the Creating Healthy Places to Live, Work and Play (CHP) initiative. The initiative will focus on three areas in Ulster County: the greater Ellenville community, Phoenicia and the city of Kingston. It came about through a partnership between Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) and the Ulster County Department of Health.

County and CCE officials announced the grant award at a press conference Friday morning at Ellenville Public Library & Museum. They included Ulster County Executive Mike Hein, Interim CHP Coordinator Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Ulster County Public Health Director Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, and CCEUC Executive Director Lydia Reidy.

Competitive Grant
Zaczkiewicz said the three communities were chosen for their diversity from a demographic perspective. "Kingston is a small city, Ellenville is a village and Phoenicia is a hamlet," he said, offering a unique chance to measure the impact of the program's success.

The grant is one of only 22 in the state, and earning it was a very competitive process including the metropolitan New York area and Long Island, Zaczkiewicz noted.

Hein said he is excited to see the program begin in the area for three reasons: "It's a wonderful opportunity to work with Cornell Cooperative Extension, an opportunity to impact public health, and most importantly an opportunity to make families' lives better."

Diabetes Affects More Than Just Adults
Obesity can be related to a number of diseases, most notably Type 2 diabetes, said Hasbrouck. There used to be two types of diabetes, he related: juvenile diabetes and Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes. But with child obesity rising, Type 2 is no longer adult-onset � it is childhood-onset.

He referred to what he called a "globesity epidemic," since obesity and Type 2 diabetes are so widespread. Stressing information, education and communication, Dr. Hasbrouck said there needs to be a change in behavior in order to make a dent in the epidemic.

Things to Look For
Some of the things that residents could see as part of this initiative include:

• Developing and launching community initiatives to get residents to walk and bike more within safe streetscape environments;
• Supporting the proliferation of community gardens;
• Making it easier for residents to use parks via improved signage and online resources;
• Increasing healthy snacking and physical activity and decreasing screen time for youth in day- and afterschool-care centers;
• Working with restaurants and eateries to step-up efforts in posting nutrition information;
• Launching mobile farmers markets to reach communities with less access to fresh produce;
• Launching a county-wide media campaign focused on healthier food choices and portion sizes on restaurant menus, including greater access to nutritional information;
• Working with the media to educate residents about obesity and Type 2 diabetes prevention; and
• Engaging county and community leadership to actively participate in and advocate for the project.

Change Needed
"If we want a healthy community, it has to start at the individual level," Zaczkiewicz said. A change in the relationship people have with food can become a lifelong change through things such as community gardens, so families can grow their own healthy food.

Hasbrouck embraced that "farm to table" concept. He also said healthier eating could be something as simple as healthier foods available at schools and in vending machines, such as juice and water instead of soda.

Statistics show that more than 60 percent of adults and 40 percent of children and adolescents in New York are either overweight or obese, and Ulster County is no exception, Hasbrouck said.

"We have a reality that is unique in that the generation after us may not live as long as we do," Hasbrouck said. "It's not just quality of life; it's a matter of life and death."