Blue Cross & Blue Shield Of Montana Foundation Awards Nearly $500,000 In Grants

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is among three Montana non-profit organizations to receive a total of nearly $500,000 in grants from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation for Healthy Montanans to help them lead the effort to stop the spread of childhood obesity.

NCAT’s project, Montana FoodCorps, will use grant funds to help K-12 schools state-wide serve local, healthy foods; to build and tend school gardens and incorporate them into academic activities; and to educate children about how and why to eat healthy food grown closer to home.

FoodCorps Project Director Crissie McMullan of Missoula noted, “The FoodCorps project has already returned over $2.5 million to Montana farmers and ranchers, and served healthy, locally-grown food to more than 16,000 Montana school children. This grant will help FoodCorps expand to additional communities across the state.”

The other grant recipients are the Big Sky State Games and the Billings Clinic Foundation.

“In order to bend the health care cost curve in Montana, we must start by educating our youth to lead a healthy lifestyle,” said Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana (BCBSMT) CEO Mike Frank.

“These organizations, working in conjunction with the Montana education community, will use these grants and begin a dialog on reducing obesity in Montana and helping our most valued treasure, our children lead a happier, healthier life.”

The Foundation received over 20 applications in response to its request for proposals for Montana ideas to fight the rise in childhood obesity. “Big Sky State Games (BSSG) will use the grants to start a fun way for school children to increase their physical activity, which ultimately can improve children’s health and academic achievement,” stated Karen Sanford Gall, President of BSSG. BSSG will lead the Fit Kids Club initiative in 25 schools throughout the state. In addition to each school’s regular physical activity offerings, each Fit Kids Club will provide children with a minimum of 30 minutes of vigorous physical activity three times per week or 45 minutes two times per week. Schools will plan and control their campus-based club. Clubs will be awarded $1,000 grants to implement the Fit Kids Club.

The Billings Clinic Foundation will use its grant funds to introduce an approach referred to as Positive Deviance as a way to reduce childhood obesity in Montana. Positive Deviance is a collaborative methodology that has been successful in reducing disease and hunger in countries around the world. Billings Clinic was involved in introducing Positive Deviance into healthcare in the United States and used the process to reduce the incidence of infections among its hospital patients. Positive Deviance is based on the premise that in every community there are individuals and groups whose different practices achieve better outcomes. The process uncovers and helps spread these practices. “Billings Clinic Foundation is looking forward to sharing our positive outcomes with this approach to help schools and communities determine their own successful ways to reverse the concerning trends of childhood obesity in Montana,” said Foundation President Jim Duncan.

The three successful applicants have also agreed to work with each other where possible. When awarding these grants, the Foundation determined there was a great possibility of collaboration among these three organizations. “We are pleased these organizations have agreed to work together. Only through working with each other and sharing best practices with others will we be able to win the fight against obesity,” said Frank.