Army packages stakeholders with healthy goals

FORT SILL, Okla., Oct. 5, 2017 -- The Healthy Army Communities plan brought leaders from assorted organizations to pull together efforts in an attempt to promote healthy living throughout the Army. It was determined the group would meet at Fort Sill because of the installation's success with the Healthy Base Initiative, a program bringing healthy living options to service members and their families.

"It was the shining star and was selected as the model," said Curt Cornelssen, managing director of public sector consulting for CBRE, the contractor supporting Healthy Army Community. The group, which combined leaders from Fort Sill organizations including Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation; Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Defense Commissary Agency as well as other CBRE representatives, began their work with a meeting Oct. 2, at the Patriot Club.

John Patten, chief of recreation and business programs for Installation Management Command FMRW, said each organization was already taking part in promoting healthy lifestyles on the installation prior to them arriving. It was their objective to unify the efforts under the Healthy Army Communities program pooling efforts rather than each organization working independently.

"(Our goal is) finding out what other people are doing and aligning everyone together, because that's not the case at every installation," said Patten. "Everyone knows what everyone else is doing and we want to package that and show there is a culture of health."

During the weeklong study, the group will have subject matter experts meet with focus groups and bring stakeholders into the planning stage. Cornelssen said it is all to collaborate and learn what is the best practice and model for other installations to implement. The plan must be scalable and sustainable, he said.

Additionally, the group hopes to learn what can be done for Fort Sill to further improve the advancements already made.

"What's amazing is that this is historic," said Cornelssen. "We have the stakeholders working together. We have dietitians across the table from the exchange and collaborating."

Brenda Spencer-Ragland, Fort Sill director of FMWR, said one of the areas she is most proud of is the partnership between the installation and with their on-post school, Freedom Elementary, which is part of the Lawton Public School system. It was decided to use the school to implement the "Alliance for Healthier Generations" challenging their fourth graders to walk 10,000 steps, encouraging healthy snacks, and working with the school to talk to parents about healthier eating options.

The school came in at or below the national standard of 21 percent said Spender-Ragland.

For the state of Oklahoma, on average, 40 percent of fourth graders are considered obese and within the Lawton community, there is a school with 60 percent of their fourth graders considered obese.

Spencer-Ragland said the school is an example of how the Healthy Army Community partners with the civilian population outside the installation's walls.

"This is the first generation that is not going to outlive their parents because of obesity," she said during the group's first meeting. "General (Brian) McKiernan has now made it part of policy to combat obesity ... these children will be our future."