San Benito Health Foundation enhances healthy lifestyles
Using stimulus funds and with the help of some aggressive
advocacy, the San Benito Health Foundation has made great strides
in recent months toward promoting healthier lifestyles for mothers
and their young children.
San Benito Health Foundation enhances healthy lifestyles
Using stimulus funds and with the help of some aggressive advocacy, the San Benito Health Foundation has made great strides in recent months toward promoting healthier lifestyles for mothers and their young children.
The health foundation put stimulus funds to work by renovating the Women Infants and Children’s department, which had an open house June 25 that stirred a welcoming tone for visitors. At that event, though, the agency also had an opportunity to tout some of its recent changes in offerings from the federal program, as it now allows those enrolled to purchase fruits and vegetables for the first time. Also related, the health foundation has vastly improved efforts to encourage breast-feeding, and the numbers prove success.
Women Infants and Children is a federal program for mothers with children up to age 5 and those children as well. It allots nutritional foods to low-income pregnant women and mothers with young children. Historically, the products have included many dairy-type offerings, but the switch toward adding more fruits and vegetables is a positive move that adds to the potential that younger kids and their struggling mothers are getting the appropriate nutrition in their diets.
One of the reasons why it is so important is the traditionally high obesity rate in San Benito County. The changes also go in line with a change of emphasis at schools throughout the state and country that are improving the nutritional value of food and beverages served on school campuses.
Heightening the awareness about the benefits of breast-feeding, meanwhile, serves to have long-term positive impacts for the health of those children. Studies have shown that breast-feeding has more positive long-term health consequences on the babies who are breast-fed as opposed to formula-fed.
The local foundation has done a great job of getting the word out and providing incentives to mothers who exclusively breast-feed.
Overall, the recent changes for the WIC program, which serves 2,700 residents, show that the local organization is on the right track toward reversing the trends that have conventionally plagued lower-income families.
