Nashua receives HEAL grant

CONCORD – Healthy Eating Active Living New Hampshire, one of the state’s leading organizations supporting healthy community initiatives, will provide funding, training and other resources to Nashua, Ashland, Berlin and Laconia. Each community will receive about $10,000 in grant money and more than $80,000 in training and technical assistance over the two-year grant period. The grants were awarded to help communities identify and implement municipal strategies – such as adding bike paths, sidewalks and farmers markets – to provide more choices for residents to eat healthily and be physically active. Special consideration was given to rural towns and urban neighborhoods with health, social and economic disparities, factors that lead to higher incidences of obesity and chronic diseases. The HEAL Community Grant Program requires municipal management – mayors, selectman boards, town managers – to take the lead in mobilizing community members to work together, in contrast with traditional community health improvement models led by public health agencies or nonprofits. For more information, visit www.healnh.org.