By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

FLINT, Mich. — Several groups, including a local farmers’ market, have banded together to try to help young people and their parents live a healthier lifestyle.

The CrimFit Youth Program is being headed up by the Crim Fitness Foundation (CFF), a Flint-based organization that started out in the 1970s as an annual foot-race. Michigan State University, Flint area schools and the Flint Farmers’ Market (FFM) are all playing a role in the program.

Staff members of the CFF and MSU will go into four Flint elementary schools to measure students’ height, weight, blood pressure and other indicators of health. They will also ask the students to participate in a survey pertaining to their physical and mental well-being.

If the student returns a signed consent form from the parent or guardian, they are given a $5 gift card to use at the farmers’ market.

Once the student completes the assessment, he or she is given another gift card.

“We’ve had youth programs since 1991,” said Erin Lamb, youth program coordinator at the CFF. “The hope with this is to use it to apply for a National Institutes of Health grant.

“We want to open it up to include the whole community, including the students’ families, because students can only make so many of their own decisions. For parents and guardians to be aware of healthy fitness and nutrition choices is just as important.”
Lamb said the foundation is planning to apply for the $500,000-a-year grant sometime in June, using information gleaned from the assessments and questionnaires.

“This is something really important, it’s really on the national agenda right now,” she said.

Youth fitness is one of the agenda items First Lady Michelle Obama has been talking about a lot lately, Lamb added.

According to Lamb, one-third of children nationally are either overweight or obese, and people at lower socioeconomic levels tend to have higher than average rates of being overweight or obese.
This program, which has been in existence for several years, also helps fight obesity by providing physical education activities to area students, as well as nutrition education. Running USA magazine identified it as its Program of the Year in 2008.

“I am excited about this amazing opportunity, and I believe the Flint community deserves positive attention for all it has to offer,” said Karin Pfeiffer, an assistant professor in MSU’s department of kinesiology in a statement.

“I think these associations will be successful and will endure.”
Dick Ramsdell, manager of the Flint Farmers’ Market, said he was approached by program coordinators at some point in the process and asked if he wanted the farmers’ market to be a part of it. He said he was more than happy to be involved.

“A lot of people in this area are more impressed with this market than with area grocery stores,” he said. “This market is really an institution. It definitely stands out.”

The market, which has been in business since 1905, does business with about 150 vendors throughout the year and 25-30 farmers. Most are from the Flint area, but a few come from farther away. Dru Montri, general manager of the Michigan Farmers’ Markets Assoc., said it makes sense to have these partnerships, both from the farmers’ markets’ perspective and the students’.

“Farmers’ markets are often seeking to bring a new audience to their markets,” Montri said. “Research shows that middle-aged, well-off white women tend to shop at farmers’ markets. They’re probably trying to attract non-traditional shoppers.”

She also stated the farmers’ market might be closer to a lot of students than the nearest grocery store, and that’s it’s a positive social and educational experience.