[Press Release for Home Sweet Home Alabama]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE Contact: Mary Katherine Shreves mkalsip@ua.edu

New Program Aims To Reduce Obesity In Greene and Sumter Counties A new program for helping families get healthy together is coming to Greene and Sumter Counties. The Home Sweet Home Program will take place in communities in Greene and Sumter Counties. The team running the project includes Debra Clark, founder of the Health and Wellness Educational Center in Livingston, AL; Yawah Awolowa, Founder of Mahalah Farm in Cuba, AL; and Darlene Robinson, a health advocate in Eutaw, AL. They will be directing the program along with professors from the University of Alabama. The partners all met through Project UNITED, a grant-sponsored University of Alabama initiative. The program aims to find ways to reduce the rate of childhood obesity in these counties. According to a recent Alabama Obesity Task Force study, 40% of children entering Kindergarten in Greene and Sumter Counties are considered overweight or obese. Obesity in children and adults can have serious health implications, such as heart disease and diabetes. During the program, families who have at least one child between the ages of 2 and 5 years old will take part in three informative group dinners. They will learn to prepare a healthy dinner with locally-available foods, practice mindful eating, and take part in games that will help them to develop healthier habits. They will also spend time with researchers, who will talk to them about the eating and exercise habits they have now and give them some practical advice on how to make changes that will improve their family’s health. The Home Sweet Home dinners and interviews will take place in the Spring of 2015, and will be absolutely free for participating families. Researchers will also collect information about the communities where families live, and how the home life of a child can affect their weight and health. The team hopes that this information will help bring this program and others like it to more families throughout Sumter and Greene Counties, and ultimately the Alabama Black Belt. For more information on the study, you may call  Harriet Myers at University Medical Center at the University of Alabama at 205 348-6863.