Sherburne County Health & Human Services (HHS) is helping more people eat right.
For the past few years, the county has been the recipient of a grant from the Statewide Health Improvement Project (SHIP), which is attempting to improve people’s health by promoting healthy lifestyles.
This year, HHS is working on community nutrition.
“One of our goals is improving access to nutritious foods, like fruits and vegetables, by increasing the availability and affordability to those in our community,” said Matt Jackson, community health coordinator with HHS during Tuesday’s county board meeting.
Earlier this year, HHS met with a community organization in East St. Cloud that showed some interest in a community garden. Another community organization - Central Minnesota Sustainability Project (CMSP) had already worked with other St. Cloud neighborhoods outside Sherburne County to get community gardens started.
“With SHIP funds, we were able to contract with CMSP to get a garden started and do outreach and education with those in the Promise Neighborhood,” said Jackson.
Residents in the area were shown how to properly use the garden.
“They may not be familiar with some of the fruits and vegetables or how to cook them or preserve them,” said Jackson.
Neighborhood residents started tilling the area, put in eight raised beds as well as a center circle for spices and herbs and an outer portion for more vegetables.
“They had a kickoff event in May and they had a lot of interest,” said Jackson. “So far, the neighborhood has had over 30 people using the garden. As of the last report, they had picked about $3,000 in fresh produce, and they’re still utilizing the garden.”
Jackson said the Promise neighborhood garden was different than most community gardens.
“A lot of community gardens are just plotted, then people pay a fee and use a specific area for their own produce,” he said. “This is a communal garden. Everyone worked on the entire garden then shared the produce that came from it.”
Students also participated. As part of their summer youth program in the Promise neighborhood, kids learned about gardening.
“They were out there at least once a week,” said Jackson. “It was a great learning experience for them.”
HHS also helped start a garden near the Becker Community Center.
“We were approached by the Becker area senior center. They were interested in us assisting them in doing some gardening,” said Jackson.
The Becker Community Center already has a community garden. The seniors wanted to utilize the garden, but couldn’t.
“Unfortunately, due to some physical limitations, they weren’t able to plant things directly into the ground,” said Jackson. “They requested some raised beds.”
Materials for the project were purchased with SHIP money. Two raised beds were constructed near the Becker Community Center.
“The seniors built the beds and they’re very proud of them,” said Jackson. “Within days of the beds being up, they already had people planting in them. It was later in the summer, but they were willing to give it a shot. Now this is something they can use moving forward as part of the community garden in Becker.”
Jackson says HHS is always looking for opportunities to give people better access to nutritious food. CMSP is currently working on getting farmers markets to accept food support vouchers.
“This is something we’ve been looking at for awhile - to give access to those populations,” says Jackson. “Next year’s goal will be to see how many farmers markets in Sherburne County we can get to accept SNAP and WIC benefits as payment for fresh produce.”
Other Business
In other action the board:
• Set a public hearing for Oct. 21 to consider changes to the Sherburne County All Services and Fee Schedule;
• Approved advertising for bids for the demolition of the Fifth Street bridge over the Elk River in Haven Twp.;
• Approved a memorandum of understanding with AFSCME Council 65, representing assistant county attorneys, setting the 2015 employer contribution to the cafeteria plan at $869.10 per month;
• Approved a contract with CentraCare Foundation for services to support the tobacco-free housing SHIP strategy;
• Proclaimed Sept. 14-20 as Child Passenger Safety Week;
• Approved the annual Sherburne County United Way campaign at the Government Center to include a chili cookoff contest; microwave cooking class; holiday sweets & eats contest and employee dress down days.
