When it comes to improving community health, rural and under-resourced areas like the North Country face an uphill battle — but thanks to strong partnerships, we’re making progress.

The Heart Network’s Creating Healthy Schools & Communities (CHSC) program works with partners in Franklin County to implement comprehensive, equitable and community-based strategies to enhance opportunities for physical activity and access to healthy food in school, community and early childhood educational settings. Funded by a grant from the New York State Department of Health, our CHSC program made significant strides in 2024.

In the food and nutrition realm, The Heart Network worked with Franklin County food pantries to purchase and install new refrigerators, freezers and shelving, part of a county-wide Healthy Food Pantry initiative. We also worked with seven school districts to help update wellness and nutrition policies as required by state law.

Speaking of schools, we had the pleasure of working with educators and students at Saranac Lake, Malone, Salmon River, Bruston-Moira, Chateaugay, Tupper Lake and St. Regis Falls central school districts to implement a diverse array of projects. In Saranac Lake, we worked with the Farm-to-School program to complete upgrades to school gardens and greenhouses. In Malone, we purchased a refrigerator used to stratify seeds that students use for seed to tray curriculum. And in Salmon River, we helped purchase soil and seeds for agricultural classes and a new fruit slicer for the cafeteria.

We also worked with many of these schools to expand opportunities for inclusive physical activity. In Tupper Lake, Malone and St. Regis Falls, we worked with physical education teachers to introduce the national All Kids Bike program, which supplies fleets of bikes — including adaptive bikes for students with physical mobility challenges or disabilities — so that students can learn this life skill regardless of economic circumstances.

On the early care and education (ECE) side, we worked with our partners at the Child Care Coordinating Council of the North Country to expand pre-K offerings at L.P. Quinn Elementary School in Tupper Lake, as well as implement nutrition and physical activity guidelines at childcare centers in Franklin County. The Child Care Council also assists our CHSC program in helping ECE sites attain Breastfeeding Friendly Designation from New York State. We send our gratitude to CCCNC’s infant-toddler project director, Sara Allen Taylor, for all she does to support young children and families across Franklin County and the greater North Country region.

Our “Connecting Routes to Destinations” initiative continued this year, helping make communities safer and more pedestrian friendly, which means more people can walk, bike and roll to school and work — or just for fun. In Malone, we worked with the local police department and the village to install radar traffic calming signs to reduce vehicle speed in pedestrian-heavy neighborhoods. Our team is working with other communities to introduce these speed signs, including Tupper Lake, Brandon and Constable. We’re looking forward to working with some of these communities on repairs to pedestrian infrastructure in 2025.

We’re heartened by the progress we’ve made thanks to our partners across Franklin County, but there’s plenty more to do. If your school or community wants to get involved, we invite you to reach out and learn how we can work together. Email me anytime at apatraw@heartnetwork.org or visit heartnetwork.org.

In our daily lives, the healthiest choice isn’t always the easy one, but together we can create communities that make that choice a little easier.

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Arriana Patraw is Community Health Improvement Coordinator at The Heart Network in Saranac Lake. She can be reached at apatraw@heartnetwork.org. To learn more about The Heart Network, visit heartnetwork.org.