Harrisburg, PA - The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced that it received the State Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve nutrition and increase opportunities for safe and accessible physical activity for all Pennsylvanians.
“Promoting and providing healthy environments is a top priority of the department,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “Through this grant, we can continue to work on improving the health of individuals across the state. State programs, such as WalkWorks, will have the available resources needed to continue to operate and enhance the health of our residents.”
The $923,000 grant, which the department will receive each year through 2023, will help with efforts to increase the availability of healthy foods in hospitals and community settings, breastfeeding support in birthing facilities and communities; places that implement community planning and transportation interventions to support safe and accessible physical activity; and implementation of nutrition and physical activity standards in early care and education systems.
Through this grant, the department will be able to enhance the outreach of the PA Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) Program. The NAP SACC program is a free, web-based quality improvement tool that educates child care workers on ways to implement and improve nutrition and physical activity standards in their facilities. Technical assistance is provided to licensed child care centers to support the development and adoption of nutrition and physical activity standards. The department will also work with the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, Department of Human Services and the Department of Education to identify opportunities to implement and integrate nutrition and physical activity standards into statewide early care and education (ECE) systems to prevent childhood obesity.
The department will also be able to increase safe and accessible physical activity through WalkWorks by supporting local communities to develop and adopt active transportation plans and policies to improve pedestrian, bicycle and transit transportation systems and increase connectivity to everyday destinations.
For more information on WalkWorks, PA NAP SACC and other healthy initiatives throughout the state visit www.health.pa.gov or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
MEDIA CONTACT: Nate Wardle, 717-787-1783 or ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov
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