ESHC working on grants for Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Work Group

Creating a culture of health is the goal of Eastern Shore Healthy Communities. The organization held their eighth annual meeting on Thursday and are calling for a focus on bringing down childhood obesity.

Their executive director Patti Kiger says it’s a national issue. However, eight years ago adults on the Eastern Shore of Virginia had the greatest overweight and obesity rate of any health district in the state.

She says those numbers haven’t improved. Another district has just gotten heavier. This year ESHC created the Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Work Group to help pre-schools and child daycare environments develop policies for feeding children. Their goal now is to get more funding.  

Kiger continues, “Everything that we do is grant funded. We just keep looking at funding to get that one off the ground. So far we’ve met with early childhood providers and they’re soaking it up like a sponge. They really like it and they want more so we’ll be doing more work with that.”