The University of Missouri Healthy Lifestyle Initiative is working with community members across Missouri to develop healthy communities with policies and environments that support access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity. Collaborations include:
These collaborations ensure that the resources, needs and desires of each community are identified and incorporated into the community plan to address factors contributing to overweight, obesity and sedentary lifestyle, create positive environmental changes and impact lifelong health.
Policies and environments influence many of the decisions we make on a daily basis. Policies and environments that support access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity help ensure that everyone in the community is able to make healthy choices, and that the healthy choice is the easy choice.
Policies can be informal, such as rules that encourage healthy snacks at school or workplace gatherings, or formal, such as a local ordinance that prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants and public buildings.
The environment refers to our surroundings, including the built environment of streets and sidewalks, buildings and parks, workplace and school environments and social environments –
the social networks and norms that influence our behavior.