New town initiative promotes healthy alternatives

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Department of Health has several new projects that it hopes will promote healthy eating and exercise habits.

One is a contest among fifth- and sixth-graders at Fairview and Carteret elementary schools. Two convenience stores, one near each school, have agreed to set aside a small area where only fresh fruit, unsalted nuts and pure fruit juices, will be sold. When a child purchases an item from this section, they will receive a sticker from the shopkeeper that will be placed on a chart in the child’s homeroom.

The contest began last month. The homeroom at each grade level, at each school, with the most stickers on April 1, will receive a prize from the Department of Health. The first month of edibles was provided to the stores by the department. Afterwards, the storeowners were to purchase them. Pricing is also the responsibility of the store.

The Department of Health had not originally thought of this project as a contest. It had surveyed Fairview and Carteret fifth-graders last year as to what healthy alternatives they would like to see in candy stores. But when it was realized these choices were not being purchased once the stores started offered them at the beginning of this school year, it was decided to make buying healthy foods a game. Funding for the project was provided by Partners in Health and The Food Trust.

“The contest was an after-thought,” said Jill Scarpa, the registered environmental health specialist for the Department of Health. “When the children saw the sliced apples, it was ‘Oh, that’s what we wanted.’ But they weren’t buying them. The contest was to get them more involved.”

Shelving, which can only be used for the contest, was provided by the funding. One of the participating stores also received a counter-top refrigerator.

“We’re really trying to incentivize the kids,” said Mike Hodges, the health educator for the department. “Most urbanized areas have corner stores.”

Scarpa said it was not easy finding stores to agree to the promotion. A store in the Watsessing Elementary School area declined.

The Department of Health is also trying to get people to climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Signs had been posted last year encouraging the physical exertion in Town Hall and the Civic Center, and in January, at Bloomfield College. Partners for Health provided funding for this. Fifty-five signs have been posted in six campus buildings. Hodges is being assisted with this project by Leonard Roberts, the associate dean for student affairs and the president of the Bloomfield Safety Council.

Signage is also being used at the college to promote the Healthy Monday initiative. Endorsed by Johns Hopkins University, the idea is to get people thinking of making long-term, healthy choices on Monday, the day they would most likely implement a change. At seven locations around campus, digital signs encourage people to diet, watch what they eat, get enough sleep and exercise. Social media would be used for the same purpose to reach residents at-large.

“We need to saturate the town with these messages,” Hodges said. “I wouldn’t have implemented this if there wasn’t science behind it.”

According to Hodges, the effect the messages will have on Bloomfield residents will be measurable when the Department of Health does its next five-year assessment in 2018.