Fit NOLA campaign launches with healthy vending pledge

New Orleans becoming one of nation's fittest cities by 2018 is the goal of a new plan lead by the city's health advocates, educators, nonprofits and private businesses.

In late June, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced the plan, created by the Fit NOLA Partnership, to help children, families and individuals achieve healthy weight and overall fitness. He also promised to sign an executive order to improve the healthfulness of vending machine foods and beverages sold on city government properties, including offices and parks.

"Sometimes when you get to that vending machine, you only have one choice. We want to give you more choices and we hope that you exercise making good choices," Landrieu said. "The city of New Orleans, we can lead by example, it's one of the things that we have to do."

Among the more than 100 organizations in the partnership is the Tulane Prevention Research Center (PRC), which also provided the mayor's office with information about vending machine policies and research from other cities and states that have changed their food and beverage options.

"The Tulane PRC looks forward to working with all of the Fit NOLA partners on transforming our neighborhoods to make healthy eating and physical activity easier choices for everyone," said Dr. Carolyn Johnson, director of the Tulane PRC. "Our research shows that when you offer people opportunities to be healthy – such as adding bike lanes to streets or providing healthier food options at schools – adults and children will take advantage of them."

The Fit NOLA Partnership was born out of a desire for everyone in New Orleans to be healthy and achieve the goal to move from No. 37 on the list of fit cities to within the top 10 cities, said New Orleans Health Commissioner Dr. Karen DeSalvo.

The Fit NOLA Partnership's strategies fall under three main goals: increasing awareness of available resources and the benefits of being healthy through a communications campaign and youth empowerment training; improving neighborhoods and schools so that people can have access to nutritious foods and opportunities to be physically active; and creating a set of Fit NOLA standards for businesses, government and health care professionals.

The June news conference to announce Fit NOLA’s plan included a dance routine from youth-based organization, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools. The students pulled Landrieu into their routine.

To watch Mayor Mitch Landrieu's announcement, visit his YouTube channel.

To read the Fit NOLA Partnership Shared Action Blueprint, visit the New Orleans Health Department website.

Tulane student supports grassroots food access effort

Food Environment Research , Policy & Advocacy

Published: March 31, 2013

by Naomi Englar March 2013 Years without a full-service grocery store in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward have driven a dedicated coalition of residents to create a plan to address the lack of quality affordable food. Now, as the Lower Ninth Ward Food Access Coalition puts its plan into action, one public health student is helping as part of the Tulane Prevention Research Center's (PRC) practicum internship program. Mark Knapp, a graduate student at the…

Bike to Work Day celebrates active commuting

Physical Activity Research

Published: March 31, 2013

by Naomi Englar March 2013 Hundreds of bicycles will take to the streets to celebrate Bike to Work Day on April 9 in New Orleans. The citywide event promotes bicycling as a healthy option for commuting to work and has seen local politicians like New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu participate in previous years. "We anticipate this year we’ll have a huge turnout for Bike to Work Day," said Marin Tockman, communications and development director at…

CAB Member Updates & Pics

Special Community Engagement Projects

Published: March 31, 2013

Check out what members of the Tulane Prevention Research Center's Community Advisory Board (CAB) have been up to this year! Click on the photo to the right to see some pictures from a few of our CAB members. To find out more about the CAB and visit each member's website, click here. Photos 1 – 3: Healthy Heart Community Prevention Project recently held a Shopping Matters grocery store tour for parents and staff of St.…

Tracking a new system of care for children

Policy & Advocacy , Special Community Engagement Projects

Published: March 31, 2013

by Naomi Englar March 2013 One year after Louisiana changed the way it supports children with mental health issues, a statewide advocacy group is collecting information to monitor the system with the help of a Tulane public health graduate student. Known as the Coordinated System of Care (CSOC), this new system provides team-based support and gives five specific services to families, such as parent training and support, crisis management and peer-to-peer mentoring, in an effort…

Fit NOLA moves forward with plans for a healthy city

Policy & Advocacy

Published: March 31, 2013

by Naomi Englar March 2013 New Orleans' Fit NOLA initiative is making progress on its plans to become a healthier city, meeting in March to review the partnership’s work to develop a workplace wellness toolkit and other efforts to promote healthy eating and physical activity. "There is a social movement in this community, that we're going to not just be a better city but that we're going to be a healthier city," said New Orleans…

Published: March 27, 2013

At Sterling Farms, the produce is plentiful and so are the shoppers. “I love it. It’s large, it’s clean,” said Victoria Lewis, who was picking up a few items in her grocery cart. Sterling Farms grocery store held it’s official grand opening in Marrero on Tuesday. It’s an idea born from actor Wendell Pierce and his friend, New Orleans businessman Troy Henry. “We did our analytics of underserved communities,” Henry said. “And this is one…

Food Environment Research

Published: March 26, 2013

Many residents in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes live in communities that don’t have readily access to nutritious food, a new interactive map developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows. The map examines which areas in Terrebonne and Lafourche are “food deserts” – places with many residents without access to a vehicle and who do not live within a mile of a grocery store. To read the full story from The Courier and Daily Comet,…

Physical Activity Research

Published: March 26, 2013

Georgia plans to add 30 minutes of physical activity to the school day in all elementary schools, the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health announced last week during a University of Georgia health conference.

Food Environment Research , Policy & Advocacy

Published: March 25, 2013

The fight between food purveyors and health advocates over junk food is getting intense. From the successful campaign against trans fats to San Francisco’s ban on toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals to first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity, it’s clear that makers of so-called junk foods face a widening public relations battle.

Policy & Advocacy

Published: March 20, 2013

Over the past three years, Orleans Parish has climbed to the 48th spot from the 60th in a ranking of the healthiness of Louisiana's 64 parishes, an improvement that the city's health commissioner chalked up to easier access to medical care and efforts to help people take better care of themselves. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute put out the rankings, which dissect various health indicators for each county…