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Success Stories
Project: North Hialeah Elementary School - Hialeah
Story: After-School Programs
When thinking about the needs of their students, physical education teachers Chris Neglia and Gualberto Navarro decided that the students would benefit from additional opportunities for physical activity. Students needed an after-school activity to complement the physical education happening during the school day.
Neglia reached out to Michelle Owens, Before and After-school Manager for the Healthy Schools Program, for advice. She learned more about what the school was currently offering before and after-school, and discussed some best practice curricula and materials he could purchase with some grant funds he had. She discussed professional development opportunities and shared some success stories from other schools. With all of this information in tow, Neglia and Navarro started their after-school program at the end of October. They used some grant funds to purchase soccer balls, softball bats, footballs and cones---and we don’t mean the kind used for ice-cream!
Project: Florida Impact’s Fresh Options Pilot
Story: A Harvest of Fresh Opportunities
The story begins with a few key terms. Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a recipient to authorize transfer of their government benefits from a Federal account to a retailer account to pay for products received. WIC is a federally funded nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children. Both EBT and WIC recipients throughout Central and South Florida cannot use their federal food nutrition benefits to purchase fresh, locally grown food directly from Florida's small farmers. Until now.
Targeting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and WIC clients who utilize University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and UM-JMH's WIC Project office for health care, Florida Impact, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring and enlisting the people of Florida to secure justice for and with those whose economic rights have not been realized, will install EBT SNAP technology at the Jackson Green Market to provide access for SNAP clients to use their food stamp benefits at the market.
The new program will be piloted with the Florida Dept of Health and local WIC Project office to allow the new WIC Fresh Fruits and Vegetable (FVV) vouchers to be redeemed at the Jackson Green Market. Florida Impact expects to increase the awareness and purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables by WIC and SNAP clients as well as increase the amount of seasonal locally grown fruits and vegetables available at the market by 25%. The project will also provide small farmers in Miami-Dade with training and education on bringing their products to market to take advantage of these new programs.
And here’s the success part of the story: The Jackson Green Market is currently the only farmers market in Florida authorized to accept the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable WIC vouchers. Shoppers will also be able to use their SNAP/food stamp EBT cards to purchase fresh produce at the Jackson Green Market and will be provided a $5 discount on their total purchases.
Through this program, lower-income shoppers have more nutritious selections and improved health outcomes by increasing their access to fresh fruits and vegetables. With its proximity to the hospital's onsite WIC office (serving 4,500 clients a month) and help from students from University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, the pilot will assess SNAP and WIC clients' receptivity to the market.
For more information about The Florida Partnership to End Childhood Hunger, please visit www.flimpact.org
Program: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami
Story: Big Fitness is a Big Success!
Big Fitness is the only program within any Big Brothers Big Sisters in the nation to create awareness and offer solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic. The Greater Miami chapter developed this exciting healthy lifestyles program through support from Health Foundation.
To celebrate the one year success of the Big Fitness program, the organization awarded the most deserving family a Wii Sports gaming package. The family we chose consists of a single mom and four children (all which have mentors in our program). Their accomplishments the past year have been nothing short of amazing.
What were once four shy, introverted children who weren't active or health conscious have developed into children who via our program learned how to play tennis, baseball, football and kickball. They also participated in yoga classes, cooking demos and soccer clinics. The family learned about the food pyramid and how to prepare a healthy meal. During the summer, they chose to attend a fitness camp instead of a regular camp. These are the type of changes the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami are striving to make in the children's lives they serve.
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