Allamakee County was crowned as the repeat champion in this year's Live Healthy Iowa 10-Week Community Cup Challenge, marking the second consecutive year that the residents of Allamakee teamed up to not only boast the highest percentage of total population participating in the competition (20.74% of the 13,384 eligible participants in the county), but also one of the highest percentages (69.46%) of those 2,776 total participants actually completing the entire 10-Week-Challenge.

The Iowa Food Systems Council announced the launch of Cultivate Iowa, an initiative promoting the benefits of food gardening and produce donation to create a sustainable future and healthier communities in Iowa. "This project aims to promote food security and improve the health of Iowans by increasing access to garden produce through integrated coordination, social marketing and outreach strategies," says Elizabeth Danforth Richey, one of the project coordinators.

Rebuilding the foodshed brings democracy back to the table through a focus on community-based food systems, food systems that are just and resilient. Models abound for re-envisioning how local food systems can transform how we eat, shop, grow, connect, and plan for the future. Farmer, professor, and author Philip Ackerman-Leist explores local scale from a national perspective and proposes strategies for creating more democratic and secure food systems.

The City of Cresco was selected as one of 10 communities from across the state to participate in the Iowan's Fit for Life program sponsored by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). Cresco's Fit for Life Steering Committee, with significant input from community members, created an action plan of health-related projects that improve access to, or the use of, recreational assets and more nutritional food for all of its community members. The plan has recently been approved by the IDPH as supporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommended strategies for obesity prevention and the community has been awarded $10,000 to help implement the projects.

The annual report covering their third year of work is now available from the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative (FFI). This new 27-page publication showcases the wide variety of work done in the Initiative's strategies for policy and system change in schools, early childhood settings, community active living environments and the local food system.

The four businesses--three in rural Decorah and one near Ridgeway--will each receive $375. This is the first year that WCDI has directly funded the Ag Mini Grants, but it has administered the grants for the Northeast Iowa Food & Farm Coalition (NIFF) since 2008. WCDI Director Randy Uhl said the 12 applications received this year is double the number received in any other year.

The downtown business is expanding and changing locations, transitioning across the street to the building currently occupied by Movies America. The new location will offer more space for the growing business.

The Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative was featured in the WK Kellogg Foundation Annual report. Project Coordinator Ann Mansfield and Project Evaluator Corry Bregendahl talk abou how FFI was created to address two ironies. The first: that children in the six Iowa counties comprising part of one of the world's most productive agricultural areas are, in fact, growing up in a food desert. The second: that the rural, relatively healthy physical environment in which these children live does not automatically offer opportunities for healthful living.

The Luther College Center for Sustainable Communities in partnership with the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative is accepting nominations for an upcoming Community Leadership Seminar beginning May 21. We are looking for individuals who are passionate about improving their community and are willing to work as change agents to support stronger community health.

Luther College is happy to once again offer the Whole Wellness, Whole Curriculum course for re-certification/graduate credit to all teachers interested in infusing their curriculum with wellness. Applicable to all grades and subjects, this course will provide teachers with valuable training on how to enhance their existing curriculum with ideas and activities that create links between our health, our food, our activity level and our environment.