SHIP grants to raise health bar

As some fifth-grade boys galloped ahead and a couple of first-graders jogged to keep up, Gibbons and two other mothers trailed with a sharp eye out for distracted drivers, intent on getting their ‘‘walking bus’’ to school safely.

‘‘My kids love it, it’s very social,’’ said Gibbons, the mother of a 9- and a 10-year-old. ‘‘It adds extra activity to their day, and physical activity is good for them.’’

That’s the idea behind the walking buses, one of dozens of programs getting a cash infusion as Minnesota launches an ambitious plan to reduce health costs. It’s devoting $47 million for programs that target obesity and smoking and promote exercise and healthy eating, with a goal of $1.9 billion in health care savings by 2015.

Other grants will help poor Minneapolis neighborhoods launch farmers’ markets that can take government food coupons, link colleges in Rice County with stop-smoking groups, and show day care providers in Hennepin County how to feed their kids better and get them more exercise.

Plenty of states fund programs to promote health, but Minnesota officials say the scope of theirs — dubbed the Statewide Health Improvement Program, or SHIP — is unique. SHIP funds projects in 86 of 87 counties and with two tribal governments to persuade whole communities to eat better, exercise more and stop smoking, said Cara McNulty, who manages the program for the state Health Department.

L-BF School

Locally, the Littlefork-Big Falls School was the only local school awarded a portion of Koochiching County’s SHIP grant, because of its focus on student nutrition and school lunch program improvements, already in place when SHIP was taking shape.

“We’re proud of them; they were proactive and already in motion,” said a staff member of the Koochiching County Health Department last summer.

L-BF school board member Anita Gray heads the Nutrition Committee that fostered improvements in what is served for lunch at the school, as well as the addition of a salad and soup kiosk to the cafeteria. Hours on vending machine operations near meal times were also recently limited. Gray said adding whole-grain breads, meats lower in fat content and more variety in general to the L-BF menu will be a priority when it comes to the school’s purchasing practices.

L-BF school nurse Susan Palm, also on the Nutrition Committee, has been working with students in lessons that teach them food nutrition, good meal choices, getting more exercise, charting habits and deciphering labels on food products.

The students also took part in an outdoor walk with Superintendent Fred Seybert last spring.

Discussion continues at the school on the formation of a community vegetable garden with student involvement, so students can learn the complete process of planting and growing healthy food.

L-BF representatives on the Nutrition Committee will be working with Natalie Stone of the county Health Department to further set goals regarding the grant. The county will also be targeting other health goals intended to improve the overall health of the community.

‘‘We have to address it in all the settings where people live and work and eat and pray, otherwise we can only get certain outcomes, limited outcomes,’’ McNulty said. ‘‘They are small changes that when put together add up to an amazing impact.’’

Minnesota’s program sets goals for each grant recipient. Local governments must electronically report on their progress every few months, giving the state the ability to fix programs that aren’t going as promised.

University of Minnesota professor Jean Abraham, who worked on health care issues in Washington as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers until July, said Minnesota has effectively created dozens of health care policy experiments.

‘‘I think it’s incredibly innovative,’’ she said.

Julie Sonier, a state health economist, said the state’s goal of $1.9 billion in health care savings assumes the grants will result in Minnesota having about 270,000 fewer smokers and 465,000 fewer obese or overweight people by 2015.

In many cases, the money will help local leaders improve or replicate existing programs.

Eating fresh fruits and vegetables can help combat obesity, but getting those can be a problem in poor areas without big grocery stores. And most farmers’ markets don’t have the electronic card readers necessary for people in those areas to use federal food assistance.

So the city of Minneapolis will use $25,000 in SHIP money to put card readers in farmers’ markets throughout the city, copying a program launched a few years ago to take the federal coupons at one of the city’s biggest markets, the Midtown Farmers’ Market.

Customers like it, said Denny Havlicek, who has sold his apples and honey at the market for seven years. ‘‘It’s great because it gives everyone the opportunity of getting fresh fruits and vegetables that they couldn’t get even at a store,’’ he said.

Minneapolis will also spend $20,000 in SHIP money encouraging neighborhood groups to set up and manage farmers’ markets with no more than five vendors as part of an effort to get more produce into the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

In Apple Valley, Greenleaf Elementary is getting a share of a $20,000 grant to Dakota County schools to promote walking and biking-to-school programs. The money largely goes toward promoting the program to students, parents and volunteers, as well as signage and a Web site.

A sign along Gibbons’ route said, ‘‘Walk to School, It’s Really Cool’’ and one student carried a sign that read ‘‘The Walking Bus.’’ Gibbons’ cul-de-sac is just a half-mile from school, but without the walking bus program children would likely ride buses or have to be driven by parents because the route to school crosses a busy intersection in the suburb south of St. Paul.

George Beran, a Greenleaf physical education teacher who promotes the program, said children who walk to school will be fitter and arrive more prepared to learn than those who ride a bus.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

‘‘When you exercise, it increases your ability to think more clearly,’’ he said.

Ten-year-old Patrick Gibbons arrived at school a bit winded and soaked to the skin. He’d played football with his buddies in a drizzle and then walked to school in a steady rain, meaning he would be spending the next few hours in wet clothes.

Was is better than riding the bus? ‘‘Much better,’’ he said, grinning.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.