Healthy Lethbridge is focused on making Lethbridge a healthy, active city by providing low cost or no cost opportunities to eat well and be physically active.
The underlying goal is to make healthy active living easy, equitable and sustainable, says Healthy Lethbridge board member Heather Mathur, an Alberta Health Services dietitian with Population and Public Health, Nutrition Services.
“Everybody has a role to play with health, and it comes from the community too. By working together, the collective impact can make a huge difference for health,” Mathur says.
The Healthy Communities Association of Lethbridge and Area – also known as Healthy Lethbridge – was a 2017 Communities ChooseWell Healthy Community Award winner in the Creating Supportive Environments category. Together with its community partners, Healthy Lethbridge creates supportive environments in a variety of ways.
For example, Healthy Lethbridge has been busy creating an active, ‘edible’ city with a focus on healthier eating. Healthy Lethbridge has been working with Lethbridge Parks manager Dave Ellis to plant perennial edibles in a variety of locations, including an orchard in Nicholas Sheran Park, featuring masses of cherry, crabapple, apple, pear and plum trees. This is Lethbridge’s first public orchard, planted in 2014, and it is starting to bear fruit, free for all to enjoy.
“It’s a new concept in this area, and that makes it exciting,” Mathur says. “It really supports that concept of healthy eating and free access to healthy food . . . And it tastes so good when it’s picked ripe off the tree.”
Healthy Lethbridge wants to continue encouraging people to eat healthy, in a variety of ways. One goal is to have Lethbridge and area public recreation centres include more healthy food and beverage choices in their offerings.
In addition to healthy eating, Healthy Lethbridge promotes regular physical activity. To this end, it’s installed two outdoor gyms: one at Nicholas Sheran Park, and the other at Lakeview Park, with the City of Lethbridge sponsoring free outdoor gym classes, taught by the Be Fit for Life Centre. The inspiration for these classes was based on research conducted by Jennifer Copeland, an associate professor in the University of Lethbridge’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, who showed that outdoor fitness classes support people in getting physically active by encouraging them to use outdoor public gym equipment.
In another partnership with the City of Lethbridge Parks Department, Healthy Lethbridge has installed an outdoor bike repair station at each of the city’s two library locations.
And in a new project, Healthy Lethbridge is working with Lethbridge Parks and Paige Pope, an assistant professor in the University of Lethbridge’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, to put up posters with positive action-oriented healthy living messages, aimed at encouraging people to incorporate healthy living habits into their daily lives.
Looking into the future, Healthy Lethbridge wants to help make Lethbridge an even more active city by creating additional active transportation opportunities – particularly walking and cycling – for citizens of all ages, whether they’re commuting to work, school or simply getting out to enjoy some fresh air.
“It’s been great having the city as a partner for these initiatives,” Mathur says. “Partnerships are really key to having that success to create change and create a supportive, healthy environment.”
Healthy Lethbridge partners are Alberta Health Services, City of Lethbridge, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge Public Library, Family Centre, Be Fit for Life Centre, Runner’s Soul, Better Beginnings, Heart and Stroke Foundation, and BikeBridge Cycling Association.