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HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the
Mid-Atlantic is an initiative of
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and with generous support from
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Celebrate American Heart Month this February by showing your dedication and commitment to heart-health. Adopting policies about healthy eating and movement is the perfect way to promote heart-health in your community.
Don't keep your efforts to yourself. Get recognized! Join the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign to be formally recognized for your commitment to health. You will also receive free technical assistance and support from HEAL Cities & Towns Staff. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.healcitiesmidatlantic.org/.
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| Featured Topic of the Month | 
Heart-Healthy Municipal Meetings
Have you ever been to a morning meeting with donuts and juice and not been able to resist? Have you ever dozed-off in a long meeting? Municipalities that adopt healthy meeting policies can benefit both heart-heath and hold attendees' attention. Such policies should be customized to your community's needs. Here are just a few ideas of what to include in your policy:
- Physical Activity Breaks- Use physical activity to your advantage. Providing opportunities for movement can keep your audience engaged. No more dozing-off! Consider requiring a ten-minute physical activity break for every two-hours of meeting-time.
- Walking Meetings- Another option is to institute walking meetings for functions with only a handful of attendees. Walking meetings give employees a breath of fresh air and can improve morale.
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Limit Food- Food is so widespread and is often provided at all meetings, regardless of the time of day. Food is hard to resist when it's in front of you, even if it's above and beyond what you would normally eat. Your municipality can save calories and money by having a policy that food only be provided during meal-hour meetings.
- Nutrition Standards- Set simple, understandable nutrition requirements for foods provided at meetings. One policy idea is to require that any meetings providing food must serve fresh fruits and/or vegetables. Another idea is to require that at least 50% of foods be fruits, vegetables, low-fat or fat-free dairy, lean protein, or whole grain products. This leaves flexibility and makes healthy eating easy.
- Water- Water is essentially free: free from calories, free from fat, and free from the high price-tag. Your municipality can adopt a policy to require that all meetings provide access to water. Another option is to require that any meeting with beverages provide water as an option.
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| Community Spotlight |  Sykesville, MD - Congrats to our newest HEAL Town - Sykesville, MD!
- Sykesville has resolved to research and implement an employee wellness program with input from town employees, establish formal use agreements for existing Farmers' Market and community garden, widening the Linear Trail, and making all Town active-living facilities physically accessible to residents.
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| Tools & Resources |  Workplace Wellness ToolkitHot off the press! HEAL Cities & Towns has a new toolkit for municipalities to improve the health of employees. Check-out the toolkit that covers the importance of workplace wellness and includes customizable policy templates, including:
- Workplace Wellness Resolution
- Healthy Meeting Policy
- Active Stairwell Policy
- Healthy Vending Policy
- Lactation Policy
- Physical Activity Break Policy
- Water Accessibility Policy
To get your hands on this incredible resource, click here. New HEAL Cities & Towns Mid-Atlantic Website
You asked, we listened! Complete with more fact sheets, links to past webinars, and draft policies that you can download from the website, check out our NEW and IMPROVED website!
www.healcitiesmidatlantic.org
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Sincerely,
Marisa Jones
HEAL Cities & Towns
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