VII. Transforming Our Research into Action—Creating a Healthier Morris
The Vision for a Healthier Morris: Morris Healthy Eating Outcomes The Morris Healthy Eating project is designed to make longterm changes in our community’s food environment, making the healthy choice the easy choice for people of all ages and incomes. With a strong partnership and creative changes in our programs, policies, practices, and physical environment, we can make a difference in our community’s health and quality of life. Here are the outcomes we’re working toward for the University of Minnesota, Morris, the Morris community, and Stevens County. Intermediate Outcomes We will create positive changes in food access, availability, and affordability for fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy sustainably raised foods on the University of Minnesota, Morris campus, in the city of Morris, and in Stevens County. Long-term Outcomes A successful Morris Healthy Eating project will support the following long-term outcomes. • Positive changes that make the healthy choice the easy choice in our Morris food environment are lasting and sustained. • People are adopting healthier diets communitywide— eating more fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods. • More fresh, local, sustainably raised foods are produced and consumed in west central Minnesota. • The city of Morris and Stevens County are healthy communities filled with people who eat well. Fewer Morris residents have Body Mass Indexes falling in the overweight and obese ranges. • The University of Minnesota, Morris is a healthy campus filled with people who eat well. Fewer students, faculty, and staff have Body Mass Indexes falling in the overweight and obese ranges. • The Morris Healthy Eating model for community health will inspire other Minnesota communities to make the healthy choice the easy choice.
Measuring Our Success Morris Healthy Eating will use an outcomes-focused evaluation to determine if the project is achieving the communitywide changes summarized in the project logic model and detailed above. The team will assess a variety of information on the project’s outputs and outcomes over the four years of project implementation. • To what extent have policies and practices to support the increase in access and availability of fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods at the University of Minnesota, Morris campus been developed and implemented? • To what extent has the availability of fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods increased on University of Minnesota, Morris campus? To what extent has there been an increase in student, faculty, and staff consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables? • To what extent is the Morris community aware of and supportive of Morris Healthy Eating objectives? To what extent is the Stevens County community aware and supportive? • To what extent have policies and practices to support the increase in access and availability of fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods, within greater Morris, and Stevens County been developed and implemented? • To what extent have Morris Healthy Eating programs been implemented, such as campus and community healthcare providers developing nutrition education materials and fostering patient referrals for high quality nutritious foods? The Morris Healthy Eating team will gather and analyze a wide variety of data in the assessment, including the number and scope of healthy eating policies/practices developed and implemented on campus and in the community; the number of wellness plan initiatives implemented; the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables provided on campus and at community partner locations; and the number of menu changes to include more fruits and vegetables. The team will also review the availability of farmers markets, gardens, hoop houses, and greenhouses for local fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods as well as resident survey data on healthy food choices. And finally, the team will assess community engagement with the project including use of the project Web site.
MORRIS HEALTHY EATING INITIATIVE
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