/ HEAL SLO Quarterly Meeting
Wednesday - July 17th, 2008
3:00-5:00
New Public Health Campus – Conference Room (2nd floor-Old Library)
Meeting called by: / HEAL SLO CC
Type of meeting: / Quarterly Meeting
Facilitator: / Jennifer McNeil
Note taker: / Vanessa Adame
Timekeeper: / N/A
Attendees: / Julie Chessen, Maureen Eyerman, Adam Fukushima, Lisa Nicholson, Linda McClure, Julie
Andrews-Scott, Jan DiLeo, Jessica Merrill, Gail Tutino, Greg Thomas, Mary Gallegos, Nancy Orton, Jessica St. John, Kathleen de Chadenedes, Jessica Berry, Dayna Ravalin, Jan Campbell, Shirley Peterson, Jim Glinn, Laverne Buckman, Jean Knox, Joann Torres, Ivan Medina, Jenifer Rhynes, Joel Diringer, Margae Knox, Cheryl Price, Felicia Farotto, Francine Levin, Janice Fong Wolf, Vanessa Adame, Brian Greenwood, Annelie Mayer-Harnisch, Guenther Mayer-Harnisch, Carl Hansen, Steve Kalar, Geiska Baker, Jennifer McNeil, Michael Alamo. (Those in bold are new meeting attendees)
Time frame: / Agenda topics
3:00-3:10 / Welcome & Introductions / All Attendees
Discussion: All present made self-introductions. Had 39 people attend the meeting! Ann McDermott was unable to attend the meeting. Jennifer McNeil introduced Vanessa Adame, who explained that she will be taking over Angel’s position as Health Education Specialist for the Childhood Obesity Prevention/Nutrition Program and will still be working with the Immunization Program for the Public Health Department. Jessica Merrill is representing Americorps from LMUSD. Jessica Berry is with SLOCOG/Rideshare and her predecessor is Jaime Hill. Steve Kalar is representing the San Miguel Resource Connection and is very active in his community with obesity prevention and smart growth. Ivan Medina is with Network for a Healthy California-Children’s Power Play campaign, along with JoAnn Torres. Margae Knox is a student at UCBerkeley who will be in SLO for the summer and is interested in Public Health. Cheryl Price works with Earth to Table and is excited to collaborate with HEAL SLO. Felicia Farotto works at EOC-Community Nutrition and is a Dietetic Nutrition Intern.
3:10-3:20 / Workgroup Updates / Chairs/Co-Chairs
Physical Activity & Nutrition: Currently working with the Physician toolkits and surveys. Workgroup has been going through some “down time” and needs to refocus on the task. They are questioning the doctor survey because they do not want to waste time “recreating the wheel.” Tough to schedule things because of having such a large group. Janice mentioned that the pediatrician toolkits are moving forward with Jan Campbell.. Mary G. is currently reviewing materials and shared that CenCal is already educating physicians and can be collaborated with.
Updates: Jim Glinn has agreed to take over the co-chair position for the Community Mobilization Committee. Michael Framberger has stepped down and at the moment, will no longer be involved in HEAL SLO due to family illness. Jim announced that if anyone has information to give the media, please contact him. Also, Lynn Enns will no longer be available to attend HEAL SLO meetings due to a busy schedule. A new representative from the Health Commission will be assigned to HEAL SLO. Jim announced that if anyone has information to give the media, please contact him.
3:20-3:25 / Coordinating Committee Update / CC Members
Discussion: Janice explained that there is a promising opportunity with TCE. Her concern is that a lack of resources is impeding the HEAL SLO coalition from implementing the Community Action Plan strategies. Details about the TCE site visit and next steps will be discussed later in the meeting.
3:25-3:30 / Oceano Community Meeting Update
Discussion: No meetings have been had.
3:30-3:40 / New Project Update / Carl Hansen
Discussion: Carl explained that the backpack sponsorship has been making a difference. They have been given $25,000 to study the school lunch program (Cheryl has conducted it), and implement improvement programs.. The school lunch program was found to be of very poor quality. The Food Bank is wanting to fund a YES! (Youth Eating Smart) Program Coordinator to facilitate community gardens, salad bars, etc. and have it overlap into school curriculum. Knows there are lots of barriers and has gotten the support of Julian Crocker. Cheryl wants to establish a ‘Gold Standard Wellness Policy’. Lisa suggests that some of the funds can be used towards TCE project. Carl would like to start YES! this Fall with maybe a pilot program in Templeton, Paso or Oceano. He notes that any new program will work in concert with the efforts of HEAL SLO. Joel shares that TCE wants to focus on policy change and motions to support YES!. Janice seconds the motion. All in favor of supporting the YES! Program.
Conclusions: HEAL SLO will support the YES! Program.
3:40-3:50 / Safe Routes to School Grant-Request for a Letter of Support / Geiska Baker/Jessica Berry
Discussion: Jessica shares that they will be applying for a Caltrans grant. SLOCOG has partnered with SLO Bike Coalition to support Safe Routes to School before and are planning another. With the grant, they would like to hire a part-time program coordinator to implement activities in schools and provide base-level support. Asking for a letter of support from HEAL SLO by Friday, July 18th and from anyone else available. Vanessa will give a letter of support on behalf of HEAL SLO to Jessica by Friday. There was a first and second motion to support Jessica’s request. Abstain: Adam Fukushima.
Adam announces that Caltrans is looking for local people for their Selection Committee. They are asking for people involved in Health, Education and Law Enforcement.
Conclusions: HEAL SLO will give a letter of support for the Safe Routes to School Proposal by Rideshare and the SLO Bike Coalition.
3:50-4:05 / “Walkable Communities Project” Follow-up Presentation / Jennifer McNeil
Discussion: Jennifer M. informed us that the community surveys were conducted from May-June in Paso Robles and Santa Maria San Miguel, and from June-July in Oceano and Arroyo Grande. These surveys were designed for pedestrians first and cars second. Measured car visibility, crosswalks, speed limits, food options, food quality, marketing of food, safety, and encouraged walking, etc. Project consisted of 3 components: 1st-Background information was compiled. Mentioned the use of two websites: walkable.org and cnngis.org, which aided in mapping communities including placement of fast food/, grocery stores, census information, race and income levels. 2nd component: used ground surveys to determine the quality of food availability, marketing, walkability, etc. 3rd component: focused on community improvement. The surveys involved AG/PR/SM high school students, CP Nutrition/UCB PH major, SLOPHD, and was funded by the Community Foundation. A comprehensive report will be available in mid-Fall. Janice asked what the distance was around the high school that was evaluated. Jennifer replied that it focused on where students can access food easily, which was about one mile. Future plans include presenting this information to the Planning Commission, San Miguel Resource Connection, Community meetings, and store owners.
Dr. Thomas thanked funders for this project and appreciated the information. He also mentioned that Paso Robles plans to open a Hispanic grocery store with virtually no fresh food and it would be a good opportunity to involve ourselves. Carl suggested a meeting with the owner to discuss and shared that it will be built across the street from the middle school. It was discussed to have the Planning Dept. incorporate a walkable policy. Janice shares Dr. Thomas’s idea from the development checklist from Shasta County of using it in SLO. Has a more objective way of looking at a healthy design regarding sidewalks, trails, bike lanes, and parks. Nancy adds that the board continued an item for smart growth regulations, which was ‘ok’ed by the Planning Commission but opposed by 30 people who showed up in opposition. Planning Dept. has met with opposing groups and through education and discussion, the regulations continue to be planned; will possibly consist of a ‘point system’, which will allow priority processing for builders. PD has also talked to the board about growth management concepts but will be a long process. In the future, sound bytes, media, etc. will be provided.
Conclusions: A comprehensive walkability report will be available soon.
4:05-4:15 / STRETCH-----BREAK / All
4:15-4:55 / TCE Proposal Update / Joel Diringer/Janice Wolf
Discussion: Joel passed out a TCE update. Shared that a concept paper was submitted in Jan./Feb. and now have retracted HEAL SLO’s proposal. Originally it had 3 main parts: 1) work on policy initiative, menu labeling, require caloric content at point of sale. 2) 2 sub-grants: one to Ooceano and San Miguel to work on obesity prevention. 3) capacity building on PHD and data collection. Informed us that 2 days before the site visit was scheduled, HEAL SLO was notified that there was a problem with the menu labeling because the state now has 2 competing bills about menu labeling. The TCE grant will be resolved in late October, maybe September and must be attained by March 2010. Joel then reviewed the handout. Janice adds that our grant can mention that wellness policies from each school will be met through the grant proposal. It was mentioned that AG high school students thoroughly enjoyed learning about organic/local farming and learned something about nutrition from a local health fair; they are very interested in nutritious facts and it really impacts them. Lisa added that Julian Crocker says that foodservice programs want to collaborate and implement change through policies. A policy mentioned was to exercise first and have lunch second, which has been tested and proven to work. Janice shared that the proposal must be submitted within 2 weeks and that school wellness policy may have more interest. Michael Alamo motioned to have Joel and Janice re-write the proposal as necessary and re-submit; a second was motioned. All in favor.
Conclusions: All in favor of moving with rewrite of this proposal as discussed.
4:55-5:00 / Announcements / All
Jenifer R. is extending an invitation to do an informational seminar presentation for a morning training after-school program staff tentatively for Sept. 3&4 in San Miguel, PR or Atas. Please email at for more info. Michael A. has booth space (3 or 4) for the SLO Triathlon. Please contact at for more details. Julie A.() is looking for GB/Oceano sponsors and community partners for Farmers Markets to begin; at the markets, they want food demos, children’s activities, education, etc. HEAL SLO was iInformed that the Bellevue crosswalk has a “work order” put in for. Jenifer has a Train-the-Trainer event July 24th with ten 10 min. workouts and physical activity forum; please contact to be a part of the forum for Growth for Change.
Next Meeting: / October 15, 2008 – 3:00 pm