BCHLA Blog Posts

How Do You Serve Healthy Food at Meetings?

A popular local caterer told us recently that they don’t provide heart smart muffins for meetings and events because there simply isn’t enough call for them. They can provide muffins with veggies like zucchini and carrots, but these muffins would also likely contain too much oil for them to be considered a truly healthy option. We have offered to provide some healthy recipe options.

It came as a surprise that in a city the size of Vancouver with a population of over 2.2 million people there wouldn’t be more demand to serve healthy food at meetings and events. 

It’s hard for anyone to pick up a magazine or newspaper these days that doesn’t carry an article or two on the impact of diet (and exercise) on our health. As the obesity epidemic grows, we learn every day how overweight will impact our long-term health. It seems to me that there are a lot of people talking about what they are doing to improve their diets (i.e. increasing fruit and vegetable intake and lowering the fat, salt and sugar content of their food while adding more physical activity to their routines) in order to improve their overall health and to avoid the risk of chronic disease. People are thinking more and more about the long-term consequences of their daily choices.

Maybe these changes just haven’t reached the office buildings yet. If that’s the case, we’d like to help by recommending ActNow BC’s excellent resource “Eat Smart Meet Smart” to help plan healthier meetings, events and conferences. And to provide some healthy recipe options.

What do you serve at your events? We’d be interested to hear from you info@bchealthyliving.ca

Mary Collins
Director, BC Healthy Living Alliance Secretariat
February 25, 2010
 

BCHLA's 2010 Budget Submission

Soon it will be time for the Provincial Government to consider its budget for the fiscal year beginning in April 2010. As part of the public consultation process, BCHLA prepared and submitted a Brief to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. Our Brief reiterates some of the recommendations that have been part of previous submissions or which were included in our recent report Healthy Futures for BC Families, but we have also added some new proposals.
 
Among our most urgent requests are that the provincial government establish targets, investments and actions to improve health equity in BC, require all ministries to subject new policies, spending and programs to a health equity assessment and commit to and fund a poverty reduction strategy. We believe that these three actions could go a long way to addressing inequities in health which continue to exist in British Columbia.

We also tackle a range of specific measures which could impact positively on healthy living and the reduction of chronic disease. These include setting aside 7% of all transportation infrastructures funding for Active Transportation infrastructure such as walking and bicycle paths, subsidizing nicotine replacement therapies and expanding the provincial smoke-free legislation to prohibit the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies, as nine other provinces and territories have already done.  

We are also concerned that recent budget reductions are impacting on the resources available to support community initiatives such as Active Communities which encourages physical activity, as well as those which are targeted to improving the health and wellness of school children. Thus we have urged the government to maintain funding for programs such as the School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program, Action Schools! BC and continue to implement the Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools. 

Of overall importance is our plea that the Provincial Government dedicate more funding to the prevention of chronic disease. We believe that the ideal level would be 6% of funds allocated for health (or illness) care to be dedicated to programs and initiatives that would focus on population health. Such investments would improve the prospects for British Columbians to avoid chronic diseases and live healthier lives and would, in the long-term, lessen the load on the health care system.

Read our full submission to the Government.

Mary Collins
Director, BC Healthy Living Alliance Secretariat
October 26, 2009

BCHLA Meets Ministers

During August, BCHLA Chair Bobbe Wood and I had the opportunity to meet with our two new Ministers – the Honourable Ida Chong, Minister of Healthy Living and Sport and the Honourable Mary McNeil, Minister of State for the Olympics and ActNowBC.

Scott McDonald, Executive Director of the BC Lung Association joined us for the meeting with Minister McNeil and we were able to provide her with an update of some of the exciting work the Alliance and our partners have undertaken — which now touches 130 BC communities. She, like others, reminded us that stories about how these activities have impacted the lives of individuals and communities are most important and we have plenty of those to share!!

Of course, we are all aware of the challenging financial times the province is facing. Minister McNeil advised us that ActNow BC would not be able to continue funding all its previous activities but remained committed to the importance of its work to promote healthy living and encourages all ministries to look at how their activities and policies can contribute to healthy living goals.

At our meeting with Minister Chong, Suzanne Strutt, CEO of the BC Recreation and Parks Association joined us as we briefed the Minister on the work underway to promote healthy eating, encourage physical activity and reduce smoking. She too reiterated that the tough financial situation would mean reductions in many of the grants and contributions traditionally made by her Ministry. However, she assured us of the government’s commitment to healthy living and that all Ministries are supposed to ensure that healthy living is considered whenever policies or programs are put forward.

BCHLA will need to be creative as we explore opportunities to advance policies and programs for healthy living and continue to work with a variety of partners to support this work.

Stay tuned as we share more of our ideas and welcome yours!!

Mary Collins
Director, BC Healthy Living Alliance Secretariat
September 1 2009

Comments on BC Throne Speech

The summer is coming to an end – and what a glorious one it has been in BC. BCHLA has been busy over the summer with completion of our policy paper “Healthy Futures for BC Families” which we shall launch on September 15th, lots of activities with our 15 initiatives, and ever increasing activity with our Twitter followers including our most recent Facts and Snaps Contest!

In yesterday’s Speech from the Throne at the opening of the BC Legislature sitting, there were several areas where we were pleased to see the government’s commitment – early learning and early childhood development, neighbourhood learning centres, affordable market housing, solutions to put housing into First Nations communities and to take First Nations students into post secondary training and the inclusion of First Nations in the important decision-making.

These are all priorities that BCHLA has emphasized in our work to improve the health of all British Columbians.

At the same time we are concerned about the reductions in grants and contributions as many of the activities which encourage healthy living in BC are carried out by partners rather than government itself, and are good examples of new ways of doing things that deliver quality services at lower costs – something else the government wants to pursue.

So there is much work to be done to sustain BC as a “province whose healthy lifestyle has led to one of the world’s longest life expectancies and best qualities of life for those who live here.”

Mary Collins
Director, BC Healthy Living Alliance Secretariat
August 24, 2009