Vision Award Winners Announced

Nemours Enterprise
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 @ 02:36 PM EDT
by: Karen Bengstron, Public Relations Manager

Newark, Del. - - Nemours Health and Prevention Services, a division of Nemours, announced two winners of their Vision Awards, designed to recognize exemplary programs in child health promotion. The recipients are Delaware Farms to Delaware Schools, a program of the Vegetable Growers Association of Delaware, and WISE SNAC Building Healthy Schools and Communities, a program of the Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania. The awards were presented at Nemours’ Annual Conference on Child Health Promotion, October 24 at the Hotel DuPont in downtown Wilmington.

The awards program was developed to mirror the organization’s vision – optimal health and development for all children – as well as its mission of engaging communities in finding and promoting strategies to help children and families lead healthier lives. The award selection was based on three primary criteria: innovative program design, community collaboration, and effectiveness, i.e., potential to serve as a model program.

Delaware Farms to Delaware Schools is a project of the Vegetable Growers Association of Delaware which procures and distributes fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables to rural public school districts. They currently serve all the schools in the Woodbridge School District in Sussex County and hope to expand to more Delaware schools next year. Thanks to this program, Woodbridge schools have been able to increase the amount of produce served to students, save money, and start a 50x100 foot school garden.

David Marvel accepted the award for the Vegetable Growers Association.

The Wellness Initiative for the School Environment: Smart Nutrition and Activity Collaborative (WISE SNAC) fosters school/home/community partnerships that promote and reinforce consistent educational messages and opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity. Since 2006, WISE SNAC has provided training, technical assistance, and evidence-based resources to schools in the North Penn, Souderton and Wissahickon school districts in Pennsylvania. As a result, the districts were able to disseminate more than 10,000 nutritional/physical activity messages and 88% of their community partners reported increased collaboration.

Accepting the award were Vanessa Briggs of the Health Promotion Council and Courtney Grove of WISE SNAC.

The Vision Awards recognize a program based in Delaware and one from outside of Delaware. Both winners received $5000 to be used towards their programs and a commemorative award recognizing their achievements.

Nemours Health and Prevention Services (NHPS), based in Newark, Delaware, works with families and communities to help children grow up healthy. As the newest division of Nemours, one of the nation's largest pediatric health systems, NHPS expands Nemours' reach beyond clinical care to consider the health of the whole child within his or her family and community. The goal is to encourage policies and practices that promote child health and to leverage community resources to have the greatest impact on the most children. Online at www.GrowUpHealthy.org.

Left to right: Kevin Carson, Superintendent, Woodbridge School District; Robin Marvel; Award recipient David Marvel, President of Vegetable Growers Association of Delaware; Debbie Chang, NHPS.

Left to right: Courtney Grove of WISE SNAC; Vanessa Briggs of Health Promotion Council of Southeastern PA; David Marvel of Vegetable Growers Association of Delaware

modified: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 @ 10:46 AM EST
created: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 @ 02:36 PM EDT