View this as a webpage

Sept. 7, 2017

Farm to School Month Quickly Approaching

Start planning your event October is National Farm to School Month, which is a time to celebrate the connections happening all over the country between children and local food. Want to get involved?  ​There are plenty of ways and you can learn more by visiting Minnesota’s Farm to School Month website. ​

Prediabetes Resources Available

Phase two of awareness campaign The American Diabetes Association partnered with the Ad Council to roll out resources available to help raise awareness of prediabetes.  A new toolkit was just released to grantees, public health partners and other stakeholders. Visit this website for everything you might need -from posters to PSA's - to help extend the reach of this important campaign.

School Grant Opportunity

Action for Healthy Kids

Calling all Minnesota schools! Does your school need funding for school health and wellness initiatives? Game On Grants help schools increase physical activity opportunities and improve nutrition initiatives. 

Past grant recipients have done projects around: school gardens, healthy food taste tests, healthy celebrations, nutrition education, classroom energizers, before/after school programming and physical education.

Deadline to apply is Sept. 15. View more information on the Action for Heathy Kids website. 

Grants to Improve Bus Stop Access

Rural and small cities encouraged to apply Safe Access to Bus Stops funding  improves access to transportation services in rural and small urban areas. Rural area is defined as populations up to 50,000 and small urban is populations up to 200,000. Eligible recipients are state and local units of government, tribal governments and private non-profit agencies. Applications are due by Sept. 29.  Funding criteria and other information can be found at the MnDot website.

Tobacco Point of Sale Resources

POS marketing practices and policies

A new Truth Initiative factsheet and policy resource explores tobacco industry retail practices and marketing expenditures, their impact on youth tobacco use and state and local policies to address these issues at the point of sale. The resource summarizes and highlights policy examples related to licensing and retailer density, price, in-store promotion, and placement. It concludes with Truth Initiative’s position on retail tobacco marketing, price discounting, and promotion

Also available is a newsletter from Counter Tools with the latest information about Tobacco Point-of-Sale.  It includes an announcement from the Executive Director, Dr. Allison Myers, policy news and research and a link to our new Point of Sale Podcast.

Drawn Well Images Now Available

Troutman images posted online The 2017 SHIP Statewide Meeting had some unique elements, including the work of Lisa Troutman as she recorded many aspects of the meeting using her artistic skills. Her images are now online and can be viewed on the SHIP Grantee Support link on the MDH website.

Calendar of Events

Healthy Food Retail Webinar Today

Date: Thursday, Sept. 7
Time: 11:00 a.m.

All you need to know to join our Good Food Small Store Partnership will be outlined in this webinar. It will provide an overview of the Good Food Small Store Partnership, which is a healthy food retail focused evaluation where grantees work with small food stores to stock and sell fruits, vegetables and healthy beverages.

Visit this MDH training site for registration information.

Bicycle Webinar for Law Enforcement

Date: Wednesday, Sept. 20 
Time: 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. 

One of two remaining webinars in the MN Bicycle Educators Network group's Bike Basics for Law Enforcement course. We will connect participants and encourage sharing ideas and strategies and provide BikeMN education tools and materials.

Please join the meeting by using the webinar format via Uber Conference. 

Or join via phone: 651-504-2532

This Week's Gem

The community of Bird Island - population 1,042 - is almost a year into a new model that may have saved  a small town grocery store and resulted in increased sales and increased access to healthy foods. The local owners needed help from community members, including SHIP funds which helped with the purchase of a cooler so more fresh fruits and vegetables could be sold directly to consumers. SHIP provided other technical assistance to help with the transition, as well. The new owners are pleased with the response to the healthy foods and the increased sales.  You can read more about this great investment in a store - and a community - in the West Central Tribune. Congratulations to the Bird Island community for coming together and not only reviving a local business, but increasing access to healthy food.

Manage Preferences  |  Unsubscribe  |  Help  |  health.state.mn.us