Grant going for healthy choices

3 Riverside County cities to get $20M; program could include San Bernardino

A new program hopes to improve the health of several communities in Riverside County — and could spread to San Bernardino

County.

The Inland Empire Health Plan, the country’s largest nonprofit Medicare/medicaid public health plan, has announced a $20 million grant to its public charity, the Inland Empire

Health Plan Foundation.

The goal is to help residents make healthier choices, starting with the cities of Riverside, Coachella and the Mead Valley community.

The foundation, alongside the Riverside University Health System, plans to work with Blue Zones, LLC, an April 11, news release states. The organization works with communities to encourage healthy choices through “policy, urban design, food systems and social networks,” according to its website.

Foundation CEO Greg Bradbard said a 2023 study commissioned by Riverside University Health System — which is Riverside County’s health department — with Blue Zones “kickstarted” conversations with the foundation about funding the effort.

In the beginning, organizers will talk with residents before putting the program into action over a few years, Bradbard said. Officials hope to later launch a similar initiative in San Bernardino County.

“One of our missions for the department of public health is to be the healthiest community in the nation,” Riverside University Health System’s Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari said Wednesday, but “we see that we have quite a ways to go.”

Riverside County’s Healthy Places Index score is in the 39.3 percentile, according to the interactive map, meaning it has healthier conditions than 39.3% of counties in California.

“We were looking for a way that we could raise the level of health throughout our community more quickly than the traditional methods,” Saruwatari said, which often involve waiting for grants.

Specifics plans in the program will depend on locations’ needs.

“We’re not telling the community what they need, the community’s telling us what they need,” Saruwatari said.

That may include helping the public access services and benefits such as nutrition programs, or encouraging changes in the community. For example, she said, grocery stores could stock healthy food at cash registers rather than candy and chips. Restaurants could highlight their healthier options on their menus. Or, the program may look at a community’s parks and open spaces and consider improvements, or promote community activities like walking groups.

“Its a grassroots effort,” she said, adding that it will involve business owners, city governments and community groups.

The city of Coachella’s Healthy Index Score sits in the 13.9 percentile; the city of Riverside is at 39.5; and the two unincorporated areas overlapping Mead Valley score 9.81 and 62.4.

Communities for the next phase haven’t yet been chosen, but Saruwatari said Banning, Corona, French Valley and Palm Springs are being considered. The goal is to take the program countywide, she said.

The project is expected to take the next five-plus years.