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Identify Potential Causes Several root causes contribute to the issue of accessibility of healthy foods. Some of the foods are not available in the community, healthy foods are expensive to purchase, and some people in the community do not know where to buy healthy foods.
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Identify Potential Causes Several root causes contribute to the issue of accessibility of healthy foods. Some of the foods are not available in the community, healthy foods are expensive to purchase, and some people in the community do not know where to buy healthy foods. Identify Potential Solutions Possible solutions to improving accessibility of healthy foods would be to create a county map to show were roadside stands are located, develop a Farmer’s Market, provide educational classes on to prepare fresh foods or grow a garden. Improvement Theory We want to link residents to locally grown foods to help them increase their fruit and vegetable consumption. By increasing their consumption there is a potential for reduction of conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. Growing a Healthy Todd County Todd County Health Department PLAN Problem Statement The issue that we are seeking to improve is the accessibility of healthy foods in Todd County. We have a large population of local growers of produce but statistics show a dramatic decrease in accessibility of healthy foods for residents in Todd County. According to County Health Rankings, our county has fallen from #34 to #86 out of 120 counties in a one year span. We want to collect data from a community wide survey to see how we can increase the accessibility of healthy foods in our community. We want to link residents to locally grown foods. Aim Statement Short Term AIM Statement: By September 30, 2012, Todd County stakeholders will complete a minimum of 500 surveys regarding access to healthy foods in Todd County. Long Term AIM Statement: By December 1, 2012, Todd County stakeholders will use a collaborative process to identify two methods for increasing access to healthy foods in Todd County. Stakeholders are identified as: Todd County Health Coalition, local food producers, and community members. Process Outline Two Health Department Staff attended a QI forum in Portland, OR in June. By attending the QI Forum we were able to gain knowledge of quality improvement and network with other grantees to brainstorm ways to improve our project. We developed a timeline and completed a fishbone diagram to help narrow our focus We created a timeline to keep the project on task: July: Get buy in from coalition members, prepare a survey August: Distribute pilot survey, review comments, and finalize survey September: Distribute final survey to 4,400 households, collect data, analyze data October: Present results to coalition and draft a plan (October 30th) January: Begin work • Recommendations • We have received over 700 completed surveys. After looking over and analyzing the data it is safe to see Todd County is eager to be healthy. Also, this date gives us an idea of where to start to make this vision possible. • According to the data: • 70.3% of the survey’s stated it is important to have access to fresh foods. Access to fresh foods in Todd County is difficult according to the data. We had an array of responses ranging from those who strongly disagree to those who strongly agree that is it easy to obtain fresh foods in our county. • 48.7% stated they would shop at a Farmer’s Market if one were held in Elkton. This would give our citizens another option when deciding where they would like to go to purchase their fresh foods since the majority went to the grocery store or bought from a Mennonite/Amish business. With bringing a farmer’s market to Elkton we could alleviate the 66.1% that don’t buy locally grown food because it is not available to them in Todd County. • Having access to a county map that shows where roadside stands are located throughout Todd County is an investment that we need to take due to 81% saying they would use one if it were available. • With this data we can see what areas need to be addressed to help Todd County grow into a healthier community. Things such as creating a map of the roadside stands and having a Farmer’s Market are steps that we can take to make Todd County healthier. DO Test The Theory We have developed a survey that will provide useful data regarding our project. We met with our health coalition to review the survey. On August 17th, 2012 we conducted a pilot distribution of our survey within our clinic at the health department. By doing this we were able to finalize our survey. Surveys were distributed to every Todd County household by mail on September 10th. CHECK According to the results of the Growing a Healthy Todd County survey, having access to a county map to show where roadsides stands are located is needed. Results are favorable that residents would shop at a farmer’s market if one were available. See recommendations for more information.
