The walk to a healthier St. Francis County will take its first step Monday, Feb. 25, during an organizational meeting of the Arkansas Delta Region Obesity Project, or ArDROP.
The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce.
“The ArDROP initiative has grown out of a cooperative agreement with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to address obesity rates in five Arkansas counties: Mississippi, St. Francis, Lee, Phillips, and Chicot,” said Jessica Vincent, extension health and wellness coordinator for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Vincent said the CDC selected these counties because they all have adult obesity rates of more than 40 percent. The project is meant to improve health and quality of life, she said.
Tyler Brown, a regional program associate for obesity reduction, based in Jonesboro, said the meeting will include a project overview as well as a review of previous project successes in other counties.
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“This is where we start to talk strategy,” Brown said. “We want the community members to tell us what they want to do and what they want to see for short-, mid- and long-term goals. This is where we’ll get in to prioritizing the work to be done.”
ArDROP focuses on increasing access to healthy food and physical activity opportunities. It’s a community-wide effort with the support of local governments and the Cooperative Extension Service.
“Some of the previous successes include organizing farmers markets to make healthy, fresh produce more easily available – which we’ve seen in McCrory,” Brown said. “Another project we’re considering is mobile food distribution – a food pantry on wheels.”
Other enhancements include adding sidewalks and bike lanes to encourage exercise and enable people to get where they need to go.
The ArDROP work with the CDC continues through September 2023.