L-BF schools involved in grant program

APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (AP) — More than a dozen elementary students laughed and shouted as they milled about on Donna Gibbons’ cul-de-sac, the boys tossing a football and the girls chattering under umbrellas. Then, with a few short words from Gibbons, the students formed a ragged parade for the half-mile hike to Greenleaf Elementary.

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 daycare 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.

‘‘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.’’

Littlefork-Big Falls schools were the only school recipient of the SHIP grants in Koochiching County, according to a September L-BF school board meeting. Superintendent Fred Seybert said that work on school nutrition programs in the district paved the way for their inclusion in the program.

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.

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