In the Community

January 14, 2010

Kaiser Permanente Raises Obesity Prevention to a New Level in Baldwin Park, Calif.

City a model of the health care organization’s Healthy Eating Active Living efforts

Kaiser Permanente’s long-standing partnership with a Los Angeles suburb to prevent obesity recently received national attention for its community-based approaches to stem the obesity epidemic. Residents of Baldwin Park, a city of 81,000 east of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley, have experienced high obesity rates and associated health complications, yet have a firm commitment to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce obesity in their community.

The organization has played a critical role, investing in youth development and obesity prevention work, primarily through its Healthy Eating Active Living focus, which targets community food and physical activity environments where people live, work, play and go to school. It has cultivated a long-standing, multi-faceted partnership that includes the engagement of its employees and physicians, development of Baldwin Park Medical Center as a model for Healthy Eating Active Living, provision of in-kind resources and substantial grant support to address obesity awareness and prevention.

Initial grant funding of the obesity work led to additional investments from The California Endowment in 2004 and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2009, which selected Baldwin Park as one of its 10 Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities sites. As a Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities site, Baldwin Park will mentor other communities across the country.

Examples of other successful programs in Baldwin Park include:

• Youth Engagement Efforts — Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Outreach Program mobilized local students to learn about the food environment in their schools, lobby for cutting edge policy changes in Baldwin Park and then testify in Sacramento in support of the state’s landmark school nutrition standards. Kaiser Permanente employees and physicians played an active role in this effort &mdash as volunteers, as members of community groups and, in some instances, as local elected officials who championed the health cause in Baldwin Park.
  
  
• Model Hospital Practices — Kaiser Permanente’s Baldwin Park Medical Center has instituted a number of practices to encourage healthy lifestyles for its patients, employees and physicians. The center served as a pilot site for the organization’s cafeteria menu labeling initiative to provide calorie information to patrons, and has implemented a number of efforts to promote breast-feeding among new mothers and its employees. Breast-feeding is a strong, evidence-based obesity prevention strategy for infants and new mothers.
  
  
• Nutrition Education Programs — Baldwin Park also hosts several programs that educate youth, older adults and disabled individuals about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle through good nutrition and physical activity. The Baldwin Park Community Garden, farmers market and “Moveable Feast” Nutrition Education Program make fruits and vegetables more accessible to residents and also teach them how to prepare healthy recipes. The “Moveable Feast” program utilizes an innovative, portable cooking cart to conduct healthy cooking demonstrations every month using produce grown by students at the Baldwin Park Community Garden. Community leaders, elected officials and Kaiser Permanente employees and physicians serve as guest chefs alongside student participants.

“Baldwin Park’s example demonstrates what can result when a community unites to improve the health of its residents,” said Raymond J. Baxter, senior vice president, Community Benefit, Research and Health Policy. “The kind of change needed in these communities cannot be achieved by any one group. By working collaboratively with other organizations that share our vision, we can leverage each other’s momentum in order to make better health a reality for all.”

Baldwin Park made national news on Jan. 8, in a feature on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Watch the segment now on the CBS Evening News Web site.

Learn more about Kaiser Permanente’s work to improve the health of the communities it serves.