LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation during a Tuesday meeting about efforts underway to combat childhood obesity.
The program entails bringing fruit and vegetables grown in Lake County into the county”s classrooms as part of a wider plan to promote health in the county.
Susan Jen, director of the Health Leadership Network of Lake County, told the board she hopes to bring the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program to Lake County”s schools in the fall. The program incorporates fitness, nutrition, food service and parent participation to promote children”s health.
“The research bears out that folks from lower-income groups eat less produce. So we”re trying to level the playing field and ensure that students of all backgrounds have a chance to eat fresh produce,” Jen said.
Crops grown on Lake County farms that will launch the farm-to-institution portion of the plan include tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, squash, pears, apples and walnuts.
Also in the works are plans to promote physical fitness by developing a “community recreation district” that will include Lakeport and Clearlake, and to open school grounds to parents and students after hours for sports, dance or yoga, among other activities.
“There”s a movement, if you take all of these things that we”re trying to do ? the co-op in Clearlake, the community garden, really introducing this concept of gardening. We”re really trying to look at how we can bolster our own economy. I don”t think farm-to-institution is going to make or break the economy in Lake County, but it does contribute to it,” Jen said.
In other business, the board approved four leases for property in Lucerne”s Harbor Village, adjacent to Lucerne Harbor Park, to be turned into an artist colony in an effort to draw tourism to Lucerne.
The Lake County Public Services Department has worked to refurbish the four cottages during the past two years and still has some “finishing touches” to make, according to Lake County Redevelopment Agency Deputy Director Eric Seely, including sidewalk, landscaping and an irrigation system.
“The original plan was to lease the property as a business incubator. But there is plenty of unoccupied business space in Lucerne,” Dist. 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing said.
The board also heard a presentation about plans to use Measure J funds to build a new multi-use facility for the Yuba College Clear Lake campus in 2010. The project will be the college”s first permanent building in Lake County, according to Yuba Community College District Chancellor Nicki Harrington.
Yuba College President Paul Mendoza said refurbishments to the existing facility in the City of Clearlake are expected to begin in 2009.
General Education degrees will be divided into four specific areas this fall to aid transition to four-year institutions, according to Clear Lake Campus Dean Bryon Bell, including behavioral and social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, communications, and arts and humanities.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
