State and city officials joined educators in Ballou Hall yesterday to stress the need for involvement from local governments in building healthy communities.
The event grew out of the Shape Up Somerville program, a collaboration between Tufts and the City of Somerville, according to Lesley Hawkins, the public information officer at City Hall. Shape Up Somerville promotes healthy living by focusing on nutrition and physical activity.
Christina Economos, the principal investigator for Shape Up Somerville and an assistant professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, joined Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno on a panel.
Keynote speaker Mark Fenton, who currently serves as a private public health, transportation and planning consultant, used to host the PBS series "America Walking" and was a race walker for the U.S. national team.
He stressed the importance of frequent walking as a mainstay of physical fitness, saying that only 44 percent of America's youth fits the image of the "free-range" child.
Fenton advocated for the construction of more walking- and bicycle-friendly communities to help children grow up healthy. He spoke about ways to integrate exercise into everyday life, mentioning taking the stairs, carrying a bag instead of pulling one on rollers, and parking farther from a destination.
"Perhaps what we have to do is not the gym, formal-structured exercise, but exercise in a more intrinsic way, in a way that people can do without thinking," he said.
Fenton also encouraged the town leaders in attendance to promote public safety in their communities. He suggested building more speed bumps and wider lanes, which would create an environment more conducive to children playing outside without fear of injury.
Economos, the Friedman School's New Balance Chair in Childhood Nutrition, highlighted the importance of effecting a shift in how society thinks about community health, pointing to how her children bring a more progressive mindset to issues such as smoking and recycling than the preceding generation.
She also underscored the importance of combating weight gain in children, as excess fat obtained in childhood is the hardest to get rid of.
Curtatone lamented the challenges he has faced in improving community health while facing severe budget constraints and attempting to reverse poor planning by his predecessors.
"Somerville has been an example of how not to do it for several decades," he said.
He specifically criticized past officials for building highways in the locations of former trolley stops and noted that he is trying to shift the city's focus away from automobile transportation by making Somerville friendlier to pedestrians and bikers.
Sarno emphasized the importance of the "meat and potatoes" of local government — such as education and safety — which are crucial in forging healthy environments for children.
Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach introduced Lisa Erck, the department's coordinator of worksite initiatives, who closed the summit with a presentation called "Working on Wellness." She joked to Sarno that rather than "meat and potatoes," she would like to see more "fish and vegetables."
Erck's presentation focused on a workplace health initiative started by the Department of Public Health. The initiative led to the polling of 4,800 workers in seven public institutions, one city government and three private companies to learn what the primary health concerns were for workers in each group.
The health department used the data to formulate recommendations tailored to fit each set of workers. The initiative will soon spread to other state agencies.
