FitUnited unites community groups

Last October, the local United Way, Eat’n Park and Richard King Mellon Foundation together formed fitUnited Pittsburgh. Its aim is to improve kids’ nutrition and their fitness levels, from birth to age 12, throughout Allegheny County – and to get 300 community groups to sign up as partners in the endeavor by October 2013.

“We’re asking organizations, ‘What can you do to affect change in the area?'” says Christine Grady of the United Way of Allegheny County. “‘How do you bring good, affordable food into food deserts?'”

Enlisting partner organizations

FitUnited has more than 160 partner organizations today. “Ultimately we want to have an impact of lasting change on the community. It’s about building the movement and the groundswell.”

She points to Paragon Foods, a produce wholesale distributor in the Strip, which has been providing fresh fruits and vegetable snacks to as many as 800 kids at Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania for a year.

Impacting policy through partnership

After reaching their goal of 300 members in October – she hopes – “ultimately we want to move into the public arena and have an impact on policy,” she says, in such areas as the quality of cafeteria food and the amount of physical activity that takes place in schools.

Meanwhile, from creating walking clubs to instituting healthy lunch potlucks in local companies, she reports, “people are sharing their stories of small changes they’ve made in their organizations.”

Writer: Marty Levine

Source: Christine Grady, United Way of Allegheny County