New York State Department of Health Funded: Heart Links Project of Suffolk and Nassau Counties
The mission of the Heart Links Project of Suffolk and Nassau Counties is to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by identifying, evaluating, promoting, and increasing opportunities for community members to engage in healthy behaviors. Primary to this is improving habits related to nutrition and physical activity. The Heart Links staff works with faculty, staff, administrators, students, and parents to create school environments that empower children to maximize learning potential and health. We propose a coordinated four-pronged approach in school districts: awareness campaigns, educational programs, advocacy, and policy implementation.
Heart Links, founded in 1993, is a project funded by the New York State Department of Health, Healthy Heart Program located at Stony Brook University in the Department of Family Medicine. Comprised of a team of dedicated Registered Dietitians and other public health professionals, the Heart Links staff focuses on recruiting school districts interested in improving the school food environment and working with key district personnel in achieving that goal. Many factors affect a child's food preferences and eating habits including the home environment, media and marketing strategies. The latter has become much more of an issue as children are often the target of aggressive promotional activities by the food and beverage industry that influence both home, school and community environments. As a result, establishing healthier school environments and educating children about issues related to health and nutrition has become essential in the face of the increasing availabilty of high fat, high sugar and low nutrient foods.
Schools partnering with the Heart Links Project are on the forefront in dealing with the pediatric obesity epidemic and are choosing to become part of the solution. Overweight and its related conditions are becoming evermore present in todays youth and impact a child's learning potential, self-esteem and short- and long-term health. Establishing educational programming and coordinated policy implementation that allow for the development of healthier eating habits among children is key to affecting change.
For more information, please go to the Heart Links webpage.
