Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
The Pennsylvania (PA) Department of Health (DOH) will implement the State Physical Activity and Nutrition Program (SPAN) to improve nutrition and increase safe and accessible physical activity by leveraging existing partnerships and resources and building on a strong foundation of strategy implementation and performance outcomes. DOH will implement comprehensive strategies to increase: places that implement food service guidelines; places that implement supportive breastfeeding interventions; places that implement community planning and transportation interventions that support safe and accessible physical activity; and, implementation of nutrition and physical activity standards in ECE systems. DOH will increase availability of healthy foods through the implementation of food service guidelines (FSG) in hospital settings by supporting Good Food, Healthy Hospitals (GFHH). GFHH increases healthy options to employees, visitors and patients. GFHH provides technical assistance (TA) through recurring site visits where hospitals receive support to address the food environment by adopting recommended guidelines. In addition, DOH will implement FSGs in community settings, i.e. cafeterias, concessions, meeting locations and vending. DOH will engage local health departments, state government partners and community-based organizations to implement FSGs across PA. Outcomes include increasing numbers of hospitals and community settings that implement FSGs. DOH will implement interventions supportive of breastfeeding that address maternity care practices in birthing facilities with the Keystone 10 (K10) program. K10 participating facilities work through ten steps to increase breastfeeding initiation, duration and exclusivity. K10 includes training curriculum and TA opportunities. DOH will also implement interventions supportive of breastfeeding that address continuity of care and community support. Educating Physicians in their Communities (EPIC) Breastfeeding Education, Support and Training (BEST) is available to physician offices that serve mother and baby post-delivery. DOH will implement evidence-based breastfeeding interventions to enhance community support in areas with low breastfeeding initiation by awarding mini-grants to non-profit organizations that support breastfeeding mothers. Outcomes include increasing the number of birthing facilities with maternity care practices supportive of breastfeeding and places with continuity of care/community breastfeeding supports. PA Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (NAP SACC) is a free web-based continuous quality improvement (CQI) tool. Centers serving children ages 0-5 participate in the CQI process to implement and improve nutrition and physical activity standards. DOH will work with members of PA Keystone Kids Go! to identify, develop and implement nutrition and physical activity (NPA) standards into state ECE systems. Outcomes include increasing the number of state policy and system supports for obesity prevention and increasing the number of ECEs that implement NPA standards. DOH will implement community planning and transportation interventions to increase safe and accessible physical activity via WalkWorks, by working with local communities on plans and policies to encourage active transportation and walkability. Community-based partners and local governmental entities will be provided TA to plan, develop and implement activity-friendly walking routes that increase connectivity and social supports and/or TA and funding to develop and adopt plans that will improve pedestrian, bicycle and transit transportation systems. Outcomes include increasing the number of communities that develop and adopt pedestrian or transportation master plan or policies (Vision Zero, Complete Streets) supporting environmental changes to enhance places for physical activity and increasing the number of communities that leverage funds for improvements to the built environment.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).