Healthy Body: Obesity/Overweight
The Obesity epidemic has hit communities across the country, and ours is no exception. Elkhart, Marshall and Saint Joseph County have all witnessed a higher percentage of adult obesity compared to the national average. The percentages of obesity for the adult population in 2017 were 14.5% in Elkhart County, 15.2% in Marshall County and 14.3% in Saint Joseph County. According to the Indiana Youth Institute, 1 in 3 Indiana children ages 10-17 are overweight or obese (33.9%) and 5.7% of Indiana children ages 10-17 are underweight.
Due to the overwhelming body of evidence that obesity rates are on the rise, Beacon Community Impact has placed an emphasis on three focus areas that are known to reduce obesity:
Focus 1
Improve nutrition, physical activity and weight-related outcomes of children.
Focus 2
Increase parent/guardian engagement in promoting health, wellness and academic learning.
Focus 3
Decrease the number of diabetic/pre-diabetic children and adults.
Community Partners
Community partners within this priority represent a wide range of programming aimed at improving the health of mothers and their children. Below is a list of our current partners with details on the programming they offer.
- Provide League Cycling Instructor training that allows newly trained instructors to teach bicycle safety to all ages, enabling both youth and adults to feel
- The Center for the Homeless Dining Services Program is an essential service we provide for the men, women and children living at the Center.
- La Casa de Amistad strives to find ways to help youth succeed, families develop, and communities strengthen through educational activities and advocacy programs that
- Michiana VegEDU educates the community, specifically at-risk communities, on the health benefits of a plant-based diet through educational lectures, cooking demonstrations, and displays by
- The Healthy Hearts program uses lectures and hands-on activities during six weeks of sessions. The program aims to prevent childhood obesity by empowering students
- Unity Gardens’ Health Over Hunger Youth Program uses food and gardening activities to attract neighborhood children to their garden in South Bend. Each summer,
- The HEAL program aims to decrease chronic diseases in the community by empowering residents of Upper Room Recovery Community to select, prepare, and eat
Beacon Community Impact Programs
In addition to our externally funded community partners, Beacon Community Impact provides the following programming within our Healthy Body Priority:
- ACHIEVE! is an Elementary PE Curriculum for grades K-5 offers a standards-based, sequential approach that emphasizes both skill development and physical fitness. Lessons are
- Dame tu Mano es un programa en Español enfocado en la prevención y detección temprana de enfermedades a través de la educación. Dame tu
- 574.647.2100 or 574.647.2175 WIC provides supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding postpartum women and to infants
