Fort Worth held its improvements in a well-being survey it commissioned last summer compared to two years earlier, and made additional improvements, Texas Health Resources and its Blue Zones Project Fort Worth said.
The city’s overall score in the Gallup Well-Being Index report was unchanged from the same survey in 2018, when Fort Worth became the largest community in the world certified for its healthy practices by the Blue Zones Project, the organization that promotes such practices based on research into communities worldwide where people live the longest.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and compared to a baseline year of 2014, obesity “held steady,” while increasing nationally. Smoking declined, and the numbers of people suffering from high blood pressure and high cholesterol declined. Exercise increased, and the number of people who said they biked or walked for routine trips rose. The also results showed Fort Worth maintained strong overall gains.
“It speaks to the improvement that Fort Worth has made,” Matt Dufrene, the Texas Health Resources vice president over the Blue Zones Project Fort Worth, said in an interview. “Those changes are significant and sustainable."
Among the findings, the survey said smoking declined 23%, and numbers of people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol were off 13% and 20%. People reporting they exercised 30 minutes at least three days per week was up 15%, and the numbers of people reporting they biked or walked for routine trips was up 58%.
Blue Zones, whose startup in Fort Worth was seeded by THR, supported policy changes that aimed to make the city more walkable, bikeable, and cohesive; increase access to healthy foods; and reduce tobacco use. More than 350 organizations became Blue Zones-approved by implementing best practices at worksites, schools, restaurants, grocery stores and faith communities.
Policy changes allowed vacant lots to be used for urban farms without rezoning, and residents and communities to sell produce they grow at community and personal gardens.
Other key food initiatives that Blue Zones, backed by THR, has worked on:
- Cowtown Farmers Market, to accept federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits
- Double Up Food Bucks program, introduced in May last year and matching SNAP spending on fresh fruits and vegetables on an unlimited basis through the summer. In September, Blue Zones launched the program at Elrod’s Cost Plus Supermarket on Fort Worth’s North Side, offering discounts off of eligible fresh product. Blue Zones has since expanded the program to two Foodland stores in Fort Worth.
- Working with the city of Fort Worth to allow push cart vendors to sell fresh fruit and vegetables. A vendor in the North Side’s Diamond Hill area regularly sells out of produce, Blue Zones said.
- Good For You healthy food pantries in schools. In 2019, Blue Zones teamed up with the Tarrant Area Food Bank to open a pantry at Daggett Middle School. A second one opened later at Alice Contreras Elementary School. Four more opened this year, and one will open this fall.
When COVID-19 hit, Blue Zones shifted focus and sought ways to serve as a conduit for community partners. Since August 2020, it estimates it provided 250,000 pounds of emergency food to the community through 12 community centers, three distribution sites, and six food pantries.