BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
LEXINGTON — The CDC’s High Obesity Program (HOP) funds initiatives in Martin County in collaboration with the University of Kentucky’s Extension Program to improve the overall health index of the county.
The national grant program has provided funding and support for food pantries, farmers markets and physical activities in the county since 2018 and has big plans for the future.
The grant program will provide five years of funding in Martin County for wellness initiatives from 2018 to 2023. Funding for programming in Martin County totaled $500,000 for the 2021 Fiscal Year, according to the CDC.
Martin County is the only county in Kentucky that receives programming and funding from the HOP.
“The grant award is only to be used for work in counties with over 40 percent adult obesity,” Lianekhammy explained.
The grant’s sponsor, the CDC, “used 2015 obesity rate data provided by Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Systems to identify two Kentucky counties that met the eligibility requirement – Martin and McCreary.”
At the time of the application process, the UK Extension program did not have the necessary infrastructure established in McCreary County for the county to participate in the HOP.
Joann Lianekhammy, UK HOP project coordinator, told the Mountain Citizen, “Our strategies focus on interventions that include policy, systems and environmental components to improve healthy eating and active living.”
One of the primary focuses of the program has been building the infrastructure of food banks in Martin County.
“We are working with Dwayne Mills and Bill Zuidema of Appalachia Reach Out, Derrick Stepp of RAMP and Oreatha Stanley of Helping Hands Food Pantries to build their infrastructure so they can be able to provide more fresh storage with refrigerators and freezers and serve more residents in need,” said Lianekhammy.
Lianekhammy and her team have also worked closely with Roger Mollette of the Martin County Extension Office and the Grow Appalachia Program, a nonprofit based out of Berea, to provide education and resources for citizens looking to grow their own food. This collaborative will also produce the upcoming free farmers market hosted by Turkey Creek Nazarene.
The grant has also funded initiatives toward building more active lifestyles in Martin County, including enhancements to parks in Inez and Warfield. One such initiative is the Inez Storywalk.
“We installed Storywalk frames on posts along the Inez Trail that promote literacy, reading, health, exercise and movement,” Lianekhammy said. “[Martika McCoy Scott], the Martin County Family & Consumer Sciences Extension Agent, and partners from the Martin County Library help us rotate the children’s story regularly so that walkers can read the story as they pass by each frame on the trail.”
The UK HOP team’s focus for the remainder of the program will be to improve access and usage of nutritious food sources and active spaces.
Parks in the county will see fruit trees added to walking paths in collaboration with Martin County Kiwanis. Walking paths in Warfield will also see the addition of Storywalk frames like those in Inez.
The team is working with Jigsaw Contracting to restore the tennis courts in Inez and Warfield.
Nita Collier will be working with the team to establish and implement a community kitchen in the Historic Martin County Courthouse.
Along the way, the team at UK has been collecting and analyzing data to determine the impact of the program. Key performance metrics are reported to the CDC annually.
“Our team is also in the process of conducting a … study over three different time points to observe behavior changes in Martin County residents across the five years of the grant,” said Lianekhammy. “All these data sources will help us better understand if our approaches are on the right track toward effectively improving the health of citizens.”