City
officials last Wednesday gathered in the Aldermanic Chamber to
celebrate the successes and goals of Shape Up Somerville, a city-wide
campaign to increase daily physical exercise and healthy eating through
programming, infrastructure improvements and policy work.

Representatives
from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation were at hand to talk about its
Healthy Kids Healthy Communities program that offers grants of up to
$400,000 to nine communities state-wide-of which Somerville was
selected. The program is a major part of the foundation's five-year,
$500 million commitment to reverse the obesity epidemic in the United
States by 2015.

"Everyone knows how important childhood
obesity is in international health conversations," said Rich Bell, a
foundation representative. Obesity prevention is one of the country's
most pressing health challenge. Nationally, over 30 percent of adults
are considered obese and over 30 percent of children are obese. Health
problems due to obesity account for nine percent of medical
expenditures annually.

Somerville is at the forefront of the
movement to address good community health through environmental
changes, Bell said. There are over 100 communities doing the same
thing, but mainly through piece meal attempts; a farmer's market or a
school program, Bell said. But few are doing what Somerville has taken
on by involving stakeholders across-the-board.

In particular,
the city will-through the Shape up Somerville program-implement the
following, according to Mayor Joseph Curtatone:

o Offer healthy
eating incentives at local restaurants. Any restaurant that agrees to
offer healthy dinners expressly for children will be recognized at the
end of the year. Curtatone hopes to see five restaurants participate.

o
Add farmers markets throughout the city. Currently there are markets in
Davis and Union Squares. A farmers market will soon come to lower
Broadway in East Somerville.

o Survey food retailers to see how they can add fruit and vegetables to their product lines.

o
Coordinate an agenda on how to safely use the city's open spaces. The
city is currently holding a youth-led inventory of playground and park
equipment.

o Expand walking and biking opportunities.

A
Shape Up Somerville task force will work with all stakeholders in the
city to develop a "neighborhood champions program," Curtatone said.

"Think
of the consequences if you take any community and you cut off access to
healthy food choices," Curtatone said. "What do you think the result
will be? We would see a health epidemic, health challenges and social
consequences."

Past Shape up Somerville initiatives include
offering a Fitness Buddies program, walk/ride days, healthy
alternatives to school lunches, a bike/walk path for the Green Line
extension plans, adding eight miles of bike lanes in the city,
installing bike racks and improving the city's parks, according to
Curtatone.

Most of the time it's the affluent or homogeneous
cities that make such strides to improve the health of its residents,
Bell said.

"Somerville is working to change its culture and
normal way of life, which is a great opportunity," Bell said. "We see
how Somerville is reaching out to the schools, the parks, the streets,
retail, city government-it sure is hitting this effort across many
levels. This is truly ambitious."

The leading sites for the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program are urban and rural, large and
small. They include Chicago; Columbia, Mo.; Louisville, Ky.; Seattle;
Washington; and Baldwin Park, Central Valley and Oakland in California.

The
program will grow to approximately 70 communities when another round of
funding comes through late next year. Many are expected to be from a
swath of southern states where childhood obesity rates are particularly
high. The leading sites will then work with the new communities to
share the lessons they've learned and the most effective approaches.
Read the full story at http://www.rwjf.org/childhoodobesity/product.jsp?id=36348

It
takes a lot of work to change the culture and attitudes surrounding
obesity, said Paulette Renault-Caragines, RN, MPA, Somerville's health
department director.

"You need to change the DNA in the
community," she said. "We need to stress to parents that the $5 Happy
Meal is not the only default meal," she said.

It also boils
down to using the correct terminology for parents so the issue isn't
too socially charged and to get the point across in a matter-of-fact
manner, Renault-Caragaines said. For example, the correct term is
"obese" rather than "overweight."

The schools are also urging
that kids walk to school, which entails working on parents' perceptions
about safety and to assure them that Somerville is a safe city, she
said. Shape Up Somerville currently offers safe route to school maps at
www.somervillema.gov, for example.

The Shape Up Somerville
program was launched in 2002 via a $1.5 million grant from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. The program started with the
schools and over the years has covered programs across the city.