Ashley Varner, healthy community coordinator at Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City, has been an anchor in enhancing the community's awareness of the need for continuous health and wellness initiatives.
For two years, Varner has led the way on the Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities grant issued through the Missouri Foundation for Health, a five-year grant to create long-term sustainable projects throughout the community.
"It's about making the healthy choice, the easy choice," Varner said. "This is my tag line for all of the projects under my action-plan, which helps everyone to see that the big picture is long-term sustainability."
In the two years Varner has coordinated the grant, she has made a wave in the community within two major focus areas: healthy eating and physical activity.
Varner's ability to harness multiple community partnerships has played a major role in her success. To demonstrate the impact, Jefferson City High School and Helias High School have implemented healthy concessions, providing six healthy snack options at sporting events.
When the concessions were first implemented earlier this school year, Varner was paying for 100 percent of the snacks, but now, as the school year comes to a close for Christmas, the schools will pick up the responsibility of buying and supplying the snacks. Initially, the snacks were available at football games, but now, JCHS will offer them at wrestling and basketball games, too.
Fresh fruit baskets are another successful healthy food initiative that can be checked off Varner's action-plan. As a result of this initiative, fresh fruit baskets are available throughout grocery stores all over the city. Just as with the healthy concessions, Varner initially paid for the fruit to be placed in a basket in the produce section.
Varner's goal was for children under age 12 who were shopping with their parents to have a free, healthy option for a snack instead of junk food. Now, fresh fruit baskets have been adopted by HyVee, Save-A-Lot, Schnucks, Gerbes and both Walmart locations in town. Gerbes has adopted fresh fruit baskets in 3,300 stores nationwide. Varner only pays to sustain Save-A-Lot and one of the Walmart locations.
No matter who Varner talks to, health and wellness is always the recurring theme. Keeping the goal of long-term sustainability in mind, she has been able to extend influence to the school districts. After meeting with school officials, JCHS and Helias are on board for implementing wellness policies. The wellness policies would require schools to offer healthy options in addition to the traditional snacks for fundraising efforts.
Varner has also been a vocal advocate for physical activity in many ways.
From the creation of bike lanes and expanding greenway paths to heavy discussions about sidewalk concerns in the local school district, all have a common force behind them: Varner.
"If we can help inform and educate people in a positive way, we won't need the grants," Varner said. "It starts with the kids."