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Schools
Taking first steps toward getting healthy
From a school garden to no-smoking areas, a Patel Foundation effort targets the bay area
By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 11, 2007
TAMPA - Students at a Tampa elementary school this year will walk each day by an organic garden on their way to the cafeteria.
The project is one of several unveiled Monday by leaders of a coalition that wants to promote healthy living in the Tampa Bay area.
Healthy Together, a project of the Drs. Kiran and Pallavi Patel Foundation for Global Understanding, has three main goals: to improve workplace health, to get people to stop smoking and to promote good nutrition.
The garden at Just Elementary School will be used to supplement science and reading lessons as well as teach students about healthy eating.
The Patel Foundation started the effort in January when a report was released that showed Florida placed 41st in national health rankings.
"It's unacceptable," Jeff Knott, a Patel Foundation board member and co-chairman of Healthy Together, told about 100 people Monday involved with the effort.
The program is funded by $200,000 in donations and corporate sponsorships that include Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Humana, Rooms to Go, Sweetbay Supermarkets and Colonial Bank.
The gathering included representatives from school and government entities in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee counties.
"If all of us work together, I believe we can make an impact," Kiran Patel said.
Much of Healthy Together's work will involve public awareness and education.
In addition to the organic garden at Just Elementary, Healthy Together organizers plan to launch a workplace-wellness pilot program that will reach up to 50,000 people at TECO and Bright House Networks as well as employees of the city of Tampa, Hillsborough County and the Hillsborough County School District, according to Dee Jeffers, a program director at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, who is spearheading the program.
Dennis Penzell, a former medical director of Suncoast Community Health Center, is leading the smoking-cessation initiative.
Penzell said the best way to stop people from smoking is to make it difficult for them to light up. He advocates raising taxes on tobacco products, and expanding no-smoking zones to outside buildings. He also said he'll push to get Tampa's Riverwalk designated as a "voluntary" no-smoking area.
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio spoke to the group about the importance of healthy eating and regular exercise in her own life.
"I have more energy today at 48 than I did at 28," she said. "You can do so much more in life when you feel good."
Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.
[Last modified September 11, 2007, 00:54:53]
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