Leaders Kick Off Energize NWA

Dr. John Agwunobi, president of health and wellness at Walmart, talks Thursday about healthy grocery-shopping choices at the EnergizeNWA Summit in Rogers.
Dr. John Agwunobi, president of health and wellness at Walmart, talks Thursday about healthy grocery-shopping choices at the EnergizeNWA Summit in Rogers.

— EnergizeNWA organizers hope the program lives up to its name.

About 160 community members gathered Thursday at the John Q. Hammons Center to listen to health care leaders and participate in roundtable discussions that will lay groundwork for improving healthy food choices and encouraging exercise. EnergizeNWA is an initiative started by the Endeavor Foundation.

At A Glance

Granting Money

The Convergence Partnership awarded a $170,000 grant to the Endeavor Foundation to support EnergizeNWA.

The Endeavor Foundation is one of 13 community foundations in the United States to receive a 2012 Innovation Fund grant which focuses on communitywide improvements in health and equity.

Endeavor pledged to award $400,000 in grants this year to programs that support EnergizeNWA’s goal to improve access to healthy food and physical activity.

The group will open the submission process by mid-year.

Source: Staff Report

Anita Scism, Endeavor president and chief executive officer, said the focus is on improving access to healthy food and physical activity.

“We see a region where bicycling and walking rival driving and a place where it is easy to eat well and be physically active because our community supports a healthy lifestyle,” she said.

She said attendees came up with many great ideas and new solutions to tackle the issue.

“What we wanted was to come up with a collective vision. I think we accomplished that today,” she said after the daylong kickoff event.

To help the program gain traction, the foundation will award $400,000 in grants this year to programs that support healthy goals.

Jill Kaplan, Endeavor vice president for strategy and communications, said the group will begin accepting grant requests in the next few months and will select the ones that best align with EnergizeNWA goals.

“We want to create a community blueprint,” she said. “We wanted to bring together a broad array of community leaders to get their ideas.”

The group gathered Thursday included mayors, superintendents, regional planners and executives of nonprofit groups and businesses.

Arkansas ranked 48th in the 2012 America’s Health Rankings published by the United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Association.

About 30 percent of the state’s adult population — or 700,000 people — are obese. The same percentage live a sedentary lifestyle.

Benton and Washington counties are two of the healthier counties in the state, according to County Health Rankings published by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Benton County is the healthiest in the state with 28 percent of the adult population obese and inactive.

Washington County is second with a 30 percent obesity rate. Approximately 24 percent of the county’s adults live a sedentary lifestyle.

Arkansas Surgeon General Dr. Joe Thompson said Northwest Arkansas is on the right path and needs to continue building on those successes.

“This is not an impossible task,” he said. “You are on the path to lead the nation.”

The Razorback Greenway is one example of something that is under way that can be built upon. The greenway is a 36-mile trail stretching from Fayetteville to Lake Bella Vista.

Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said his city is working on many connections to the trail.

“You need to get people to the greenway so they can use it,” he said.

Springdale voters approved a $71 million bond issue last year and will direct $45 million to street improvements. Sprouse said part of the program will create sidewalks along new roads that are wider and allow for trails.

The bond issue will also allow the city to add 200 acres of new parkland that will include playgrounds and sports fields.

Access to healthy food was another key topic Thursday, and Sprouse said he would like to see more community markets open in underserved neighborhoods, or so-called “food deserts.”

“That is a business decision, but we would support neighborhood opportunities to access food,” he said.

Walmart tackled food deserts as part of a health initiative the company kicked off in January 2011, said Dr. John Agwunobi, president of Health and Wellness at Walmart.

Other parts of that plan include improving product content, reducing the costs of healthy alternatives, creating a “Great for You” icon and improving education around healthy nutrition.

Getting children involved is one way programs can pick up traction.

“Instead of fighting obesity, we can stress teaching healthier lifestyles,” he said. “Empower children and focus on the positives.”

Mary Ley, communications director for the Bentonville School District, advocated providing healthy food choices in school cafeterias.

“You need to find a way to create healthy choices that the kids will eat,” she said. “We don’t want to kids to go hungry.”

The Endeavor Foundation is supporting some programs already identified as opportunities including developing a regional plan to improve food access.

Another project creates a regional, interactive map residents and visitors can use to plot their own routes from town to town.

Kaplan said the map will be released on the EnergizeNWA.org website when it launches in the next couple of weeks. She said the map will initially show what parts of the Razorback Greenway are complete and will be updated as more sections are built. The entire trail is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year.

Upcoming Events