Get Healthy San Mateo County Taskforce Supports Food System Change

Marsha Kunz, Task Force member and Director of Give Me Five: Healthy Eating and Exercise, assists Bryden Johnston of Collective Roots blend fruit smoothies on Collective Roots' Bicycle Blender.

The newly named "Get Healthy San Mateo County Taskforce" held its last quarterly meeting on December 10th. A theme of the meeting was "Buy Fresh, Buy Local."

The meeting featured the “As Fresh As It Gets” program created in partnership with the San Mateo County Convention & Visitors Bureau and San Mateo County Farm Bureau, with the cooperation of the San Mateo County Harbor District. The program aims to educate County residents about fresh local foods and products available in our area. It also promotes restaurants in the County that buy and serve locally grown and caught products.

The meeting also featured a panel of local farmers — Jered Lawson from Pie Ranch, Ryan Casey from Blue House Farm, Dee Harley from Harley Goat Farm — and community organizations interested in increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables through their work in local farmers’ markets — Erin Tormey, Market Manager for Coastside and Pacifica Farmers’ Markets and Bryden Johnston from Collective Roots. Collective Roots is leading efforts to start a farmers' market in East Palo Alto, scheduled to open in Spring of 2008.

The Get Healthy San Mateo County Taskforce consists of over 250 stakeholders and began meeting in April of 2005 to participate in a large-scale strategic planning process. Partners include representatives from the healthcare sector, schools, preschools, childcare, after school programs, community-based organizations, parent organizations, policy makers, and more.

The Blueprint for Prevention of Childhood Obesity: A Call to Action, created by the Taskforce, was released on April 4, 2006. The report consists of quantitative and qualitative data, a description of the Taskforce process, and an action plan. You may download the Blueprint and view more information about the Taskforce by clicking here. To download a report on the activities of the Taskforce, click here.

San Mateo County has one of the highest percentages of overweight (at or above the 95% percentile of Body Mass Index for age) among low-income children between the ages of 5 and 19. The County ranks 49th out of 61 regions in California. Overweight and obesity tends to occur more frequently in certain populations such as African Americans, Latinos, and Pacific Islanders. Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson convened a Healthy Communities Summit in 2004 to explore these disparities and determine which health issues are of greatest concern to residents in San Mateo County. Community stakeholders identified childhood obesity as one of the County’s key health priorities.

In April 2006 the San Mateo County Prevention of Childhood Obesity (PCO) Task Force released the Blueprint for Prevention of Childhood Obesity: A Call to Action (Blueprint), a countywide strategic plan to increase physical activity and improve nutrition among youth. The Board of Supervisors adopted this plan in 2006.

The evaluation committee of the Task Force conducted the first evaluation of progress made in implementing the Blueprint. Numerous people have contributed to this effort including Task Force members, staff, committees, and other community members. About 275 people have participated in a Task Force meeting since its inception in 2005. The County Health Department has allocated two full-time employees to support this initiative. Nine committees address topics such as the Built Environment and Breastfeeding. The two main sources of information used to evaluate progress are member surveys and community data. The 2006-2007 evaluation is available for viewing by clicking here.