Health in All Policies, From Food to Design
One of the most exciting parts of JAX2025 is that we as a community are better able to see alignment of work across the city than we could before. Under the Ten Targets, it’s easy to identify and categorize work being done, and through this lens of focus, we can all join together to make sure our individual work has collective impact.
One Target that is at an absolute fever-pitch currently is Health. Our community has always been health-care focused, with a slew of world-class hospitals and healthcare centers. Currently, the paradigm shift in Jacksonville is to focus on wellness and preventative measures, in order to move our system from a reactive one to a proactive one.
This past week, the JCCI staff participated in two excellent health and wellness focused events. The first was the I’m a Star Foundation’s Great Cafeteria Experience. Taking place at Jean Ribault High School, attendees included members of the Duval County School Board, Mayor’s Office, and City Council. Guests were able to sample different types of school lunch in Duval County, including Sandalwood High’s award-winning student culinary program, and Ribault’s everyday lunch line. Afterwards, panel discussions were held with groups of students, as well as DCPS employees and registered nutritionists to discuss the quality of the food served to our students and ways we can improve both quality and nutritional value.
The second event was the Second Annual Duval County Food Summit. Hosted by the Duval County Health Department, Dr. Laureen Husband, director of Healthy Jacksonville, said the goal “is to build an accessible food system by cooking delicious, healthy meals that are not costly or complicated.” JCCI Vice President & COO Dr. Laura Lane attended the Summit and reported back with the following:
“The Second Annual Food Summit was all about challenges and solutions. First off, Jacksonville’s challenges include two dozen neighborhoods located in food deserts, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In these struggling neighborhoods, three times as many fast food outlets and convenience stores provide food to residents compared to other areas of Jacksonville where fresh fruits, veggies, and healthier choices are more accessible. And like schools across the U.S., we are feeding our children lunch food that’s been frozen, canned and microwave-heated.
What’s all this led to? Overweight and obese Jacksonville residents that have a higher prevalence of chronic diseases. The Solutions: policy, laws, education, and even art. At the Duval Food Summit, we watched a trailer for a Jacksonville documentary, It’s Huge. We engaged legislators such as Representative Mia Jones and Councilwoman Lori Boyer on changes in laws that change our lives. We learned about elementary schools that run farmers’ markets and even a mobile farmers’ market in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There are LOTS of great ideas and synergies out there, such as farms bringing produce to food deserts, urban agriculture managed by nonprofits, and the slow food movement. We got lots of great recipes…Have you ever made cake without lots of butter? There are ways, and we learned about them!”
At our JCCI 39th Annual Meeting last month, Dr. Kelli Wells of The Florida Department of Health in Duval County spoke passionately about the numbers and factors affecting childhood obesity in Jacksonville:
“Childhood obesity is a complex issue with multiple root causes; each child is different. We must recognize the variety of factors that caused this problem, such as the increased availability of convenience foods, a lack of access to healthy foods, a decrease in safe places to live and play- these are just a few of the environmental factors that influence a child’s overall health.
While it seems our community and our children face an uphill battle, there is much cause for celebration. In 2008, 14% of high school students were reported obese, and four years later, the same percentage appeared – these numbers are stable. This is because Jacksonville, as a community, has prioritized childhood obesity for 12 years, and our policy work and programmatic effort is making an impact.
There is not a simple solution to reverse this health crisis. We know that childhood obesity requires policy change, behavioral change, institutional change, environmental changes, as well as changes in funding priorities. There is no magic bullet. I can tell you that there are core components, necessary conditions, for preventing childhood obesity: community vision and collaboration.
More than 12 years ago, the Jacksonville community had a vision for collaboration on preventing obesity, and it created the Healthy Jacksonville Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition. That focused vision has kept one of the longest-running grassroots coalitions in the US going strong. JAX2025 has reinforced that desire to come together to prevent our children from living shorter lives than their parents. Maintaining this vision of lasting change in our schools, markets, neighborhoods, and food system is more than an idea. It is our action in progress!”
And just recently on November 7th, Jacksonville welcomed one of the country’s leading authorities on healthy community design. Dr. Richard Jackson, Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the Fielding school of Public Health at UCLA lead local stakeholders from both the heath and land development sectors through a provocative account of the connection between poor community design and the burgeoning health costs. Dr. Dawn Emerick, CEO of the Health Planning Council of Northeast Florida, had the following to say about our physical health and neighborhoods having a strong connection:
“The connection between public health and land development specifically is not a new phenomenon, but it is becoming more relevant as we search for innovative ways to address the increasingly high rates of chronic diseases and crime. Concerns about how to address these factors have led to a focus on 'health in all policies,' in which policies in non-traditional sectors such as land development, transportation, housing, employment, and agriculture ideally would contribute to health and health equity.
The Health Planning Council has been studying the relationship between healthcare utilization, population health and the physical environment for more than 40 years. In a recent community health needs assessment completed for the Jacksonville Metropolitan Community Benefit Partnership, three main themes for community health improvement surfaced: Decrease Health Disparities, Increase Preventative Health Care, and Improve the Build Environment.
The way in which the physical environment has developed and evolved has had a profound effect on physical, mental and social health of our populations. As a result, we are now seeing a greater understanding as to the importance of aligning the two fields of study more closely. For example, in one of Dr. Jackson’s episodes of Designing Healthy Communities entitled, Retrofitting Surburbia, he investigates the link between our nation’s obesity and Type 2 diabetes epidemic with urban sprawl fueled by car dependency. As recent as the early 2000, Jacksonville too experienced similar sprawl facilitating our community’s dependency on automobiles thus having one of the highest commute times to work in Northeast Florida.
Clearly, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), at both the National AIA Chapter and Jacksonville Chapter understand how architects can help create healthier communities. In addition to bringing Dr. Jackson to Jacksonville, AIA has recently partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to advance CGI’s Decade of Design. The Global Urban Solutions Challenge is a ten year pledge that will document, envision, and implement solutions related to the design of the urban built environment in the interest of public health and effective use of natural, economic and human resources. Locally, the Jacksonville AIA Chapter is leading the charge to develop a special 'Healthy Design' committee dedicated to influencing local policy. Architects cannot only stop this perfect storm approaching, but architects are crucial in preparing all of us to prevent avoidable misery by reconnecting health to our buildings and neighborhood design.”
Whether it's by design or through the food we eat, there's never been a bigger focus on health in our community. What are you doing to move the needle?
