Healthy Chesapeake

Healthy Chesapeake develops and delivers collaborative programs to support access and utilization of Healthy food and combat food insecurity. This program has three main arms, including supporting community gardens, nutrition education, and preparation of Healthy food. Fiscal year 2024 efforts included: 1)supporting 19 community gardens in a variety of settings to increase access to Healthy foods for city residents most in need. This included doubling the capacity of the library garden in a food desert that has truly impacted an underserved neighborhood, with children eating fresh produce right out of the garden and creating the warren farms, Virginia cooperative extension, and Healthy Chesapeake community education and production garden, donating over 1,500 pounds of produce to the community in its first season. 2)collaborating with community partners to distribute Healthy food and recipes to encourage healthier meal preparation and understanding the use of food to improve overall health with over 700 community members attending Healthy cooking classes. 3)supporting forkids, a regional nonprofit that supports a homeless shelter for families experiencing homelessness, with cooking and distribution of Healthy meals to residents, as well as meals to their after-school education programs. Over 60,000 meals were served to forkids participants in both locations.

Healthy Chesapeake promotes access to and engagement in programs supportive of physical, behavioral, and mental health. This includes a no-cost chronic disease management clinic for low-income individuals with uncontrolled diabetes / hypertension; support groups, on-site training; a variety of free health- and engagement-focused community events; and other efforts to promote Healthy, active lifestyles, and promote social engagement. Fiscal year 2024, efforts included: 1)offering a free weekly high-touch chronic disease management clinic to address participants' medical, social, and transportation needs serving a total of 41 clients in this reporting year. Partnering with the foodbank of southeastern Virginia and the eastern shore has provided over 42,000 pounds of food were distributed to clients. Hub clients are often seen over many years and participants have recorded an average 20% reduction in a1c levels. The reduction in a1c over the past four years has led to an estimated 95,530 reduction in healthcare spending on hub participants since 2021. 2)collaborating with Chesapeake regional healthcare and the Chesapeake rotary club to obtain a rotary international grant for the hospital system to purchase a mobile clinic, which will be utilized for the residents in the underserved neighborhoods of Chesapeake and northeastern north carolina. 3)sponsoring multiple interns and student experiences both virtually and in person for on-the-job training in health promotion and community services positions. 4)facilitating and originating community coalitions for early childhood development, to provide critical prevention and early intervention strategies to improve outcomes and developmental goals for young children and their parents. Continuing support of a neighborhood family resource center. 5)continuing health literacy work with community partners to provide consistent health education and information across the city of Chesapeake utilizing healthier 757's rewards for Healthy living platform. 6)working with the united way of south hampton roads and the professional community intervention training institute to bring violence interdiction training, levels 1-4 to Chesapeake and surrounding region.

Healthy Chesapeake develops and delivers collaborative initiatives that support physically and mentally active lifestyles for seniors and children who might otherwise lack access to these opportunities. Fiscal year 2024, efforts included: 1)supporting and attending community resource and health fairs to distribute needed supplies for health and safety, such as back to school backpacks, water bottles; and many other needed items to support physical and mental health, such as educational handouts, food samples with recipes, toiletries, etc. More than 7,000 participants were served. 2)participating in multiple local and regional teams designed to support area youth with identifying resources, programs, and available activities for success, including an educational workshop and culinary education class created to support financial responsibility in teens and the Chesapeake redevelopment and housing authority strong families initiatives supporting more than 150 individuals.