The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Making the change
The Velasquez family is one of more than 100 Reading families that have participated in the EatPlayGrow program, facilitated by the nonprofit Community Prevention Partnership of Berks County located in the city.
Funded with a $350,000 federal grant from the Office of Minority Health to provides money to communities dealing with serious public health challenges, 20 families are enrolled in the program for three months while bilingual wellness professionals work with family members in their homes — providing lessons on nutrition, exercise, cooking and trips to local market.
Project manager Dr. Julian Angulo said that since launching EatPlayGrow in February 2018, more than 520 people, from tiny toddlers to graying grandparents, have graduated from the program.
“It’s a family approach,” he said.
Angulo said the home visit setting enables strategies to be tailored for individual families. There are also monthly large-group family activities to support exercise and a community education advocate working to emphasize the importance of healthy eating and physical activity in the city.
“Our purpose is to increase community awareness of childhood obesity as a prevalent public health issue and help families understand that a healthy lifestyle can help save their lives,” he said, adding that addressing childhood obesity earlier in life can mean providing kids with a lifetime of good health habits.
It can also help them avoid chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
The target population for the project includes Latino families with children between 2 and 6 who live in poverty and are overweight or at risk for becoming overweight or obese. Research has shown that Latino children have a three-times-higher obesity prevalence than their white peers.
Change can be hard
Hoffecker said she has seen the challenges facing many families. The three biggest hurdles are regular access to fresh food, finding the time to prepare family dinners and overcoming traditional culinary preferences that often leave out the green vegetables.
“Potatoes, yams and yucca root are used heavily in Latino cooking, but the leafy green vegetables are a little harder to find,” she said. “And, if they are eating those green vegetables, they are usually covered in butter or cheese — not that different from the Pennsylvania Dutch culture.”
Hoffecker said being welcomed into the homes of her clients had given her the ability to see what items families stock in their kitchen cupboards and to better understand their daily schedules. And after working with so many families, she has arrived at the same conclusion over and over again: finding quick and nutritious meals is a difficult task.
“Easy usually means cheap,” she said. “But my goal is to show these families that it doesn’t always have to be that way. They just need a few suggestions to get them headed in the right direction.”
The one suggestion she rarely has to make, she said, is that families eat more fruit.
“They got that covered, especially the kids,” she said with a smile. “Most of them would probably promise to eat twice as many fruits if it meant they didn’t have to eat vegetables. But I try to encourage them as much as possible to try new things. You never know what you might like.”
Ana Correa, who joined the program with her two grandchildren, found that to be true.
“We all tried eggplant and zucchini for the first time this summer and loved it,” she said. “The kids are more excited than I am to try new things. They are rubbing off on me.”
Correa said decided to participate in the program out of a desire to expose her grandchildren to more information than she could provide about healthy living. Now she finds her 4-yearold granddaughter repeating things their wellness professional Stephanie Mercado has been telling them.
“I want to take care of these kids the best way possible and that meant I needed to learn,” she said. “Starting early will help them be better by the time they get as old as me.”
Correa acknowledged that changing her ways overnight has been harder than she thought. So she joked that she has decided to make the transition a little easier by adding a little cheese to her cauliflower and asparagus.
“This is going to take some time,” she said with a smile. Contact Karen Shuey: 610-371-5081 or kshuey@ readingeagle.com.