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PRESS RELEASE:                                                           CONTACT:  Mayor Chip Johnson

                                                                                                                     Judy Belue  298-0027

HERNANDO SHINES AT REGIONAL HEALTH SUMMIT

 Mayor Chip Johnson of Hernando was invited to participate in the Second Annual Southern Obesity Summit, Highway to Health, hosted by the Texas Health Institute in Birmingham, Alabama November 9-11, as a panelist. Representatives from the federal, state and local levels served on the panel discussing biking trails, sidewalks, farmer’s markets and other health and physical activity issues from a policymaking standpoint.  “It is a great honor for Hernando to have been selected as the local government”, stated Mayor Johnson.  “Our local policymaking on issues such as biking trails and sidewalks will benefit all citizens, improve the quality of life in our community and certainly help decrease the obesity rate for youth and adults”.   Ellen Jones, Health Consultant to the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi and NACDD (National Association of Chronic Disease Directors) Senior Program Consultant assigned to the Southern Obesity Summit Planning Committee stated in reference to the selection of Mayor Johnson, “His experience in city government and with approaches like farmer's markets and community planning to improve physical activity will engage the audience in discussion of local, state and national approaches. “So many of the solutions to the obesity epidemic are right here in our own families and communities - we can't afford to wait to adopt health improvements like buying more nutritious foods and creating opportunities to walk or bike instead of ride,”   said Jones.

 “It was truly a pleasure to meet Mayor Chip Johnson and hear about all of the wonderful projects that he has implemented for the City of Hernando at little or no cost”, said Victor Sutton, PhD, MPPA, Director, Office of Preventive Health, MS Department of Health.  “He is truly an example of what leadership can do in a community!

He will be invited all over the country to share the city’s story to national associations.”

Over 400 representatives from fifteen southern states, health policy experts and practitioners gathered as information is disseminated on evidence-based childhood obesity prevention and control strategies to create a regional strategy for obesity prevention and reduction.  Northwest Mississippi, DeSoto County and the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi were well represented at the Summit,   

Judy Belue, Regional Health Director, for the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi’s childhood obesity prevention program, Get A Life! My Life, My Health, My Choice, attended along with the health consultant Ellen Jones, Madison, MS.    They  shared information and programs that have proven successful in the eight-county areas served by the community foundation, as well as network and bring home lessons-learned in the area of obesity prevention.  Locally, Judy Belue directs the work of the Regional Health Council which provides advice, guidance and empowerment for grass roots Community Health Councils in each of the eight counties served by the community foundation as they seek to make a difference in their own communities

Southern States Reach Obesity Crisis Levels

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest data indicates Southern States as the most obese in the nation.  These recent rankings showed all but one Southern state being in the top ten states with the highest rates of obesity, each having more than 25% of adults as obese. 

BRFSS data from CDC shows Mississippi as the state with the highest obesity prevalence for the third year in a row, following closely by West Virginia and Louisiana. For these southern communities and the others where obesity rates continue to climb, obesity awareness and prevention, particularly among children, must take begin immediately.

Regional Strategies Prove Effective

While national strategies will have an impact on obesity prevention efforts in the South, it is essential to provide intervention strategies and policy options which build on existing and promising practices in the South.  The Southern Obesity Summit in 2007 proved that there are no other vehicles for this important collaborative to share ideas and develop joint solutions to this regional crisis. Indeed, through those methods and ongoing statewide initiatives, three of the 2007 Southern Obesity Summit states have dropped their rankings since 2007 according to the F as in Fat by Trust for America’s Health. 

The Annual Southern Obesity Summit serves as the primary vehicle for identifying, collecting, and disseminating the evidence-based and emerging practices within the obesity prevention field in the South and ultimately strengthening our capacity to respond to the obesity challenge. 

Participating states included Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

 Participants  engaged in real-time information exchange and networking among state teams.  The Summit celebrates and publicizes effective and emerging childhood obesity prevention and reduction practices in the region.  Participants also had opportunities to present their state team successes over the previous year.   Individual state teams  identified new actions based on Summit information to implement in their own state over the next year. 

For more information about the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi go to www.cfnm.org or call 662.449.5002, and to reach the Get A Life! office call 662.298.0027 or go to www.kidsgetalife.org