County receives state health related grant

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has awarded 39 grants to state communities to help lower the number of Minnesotans who use tobacco or who are obese or overweight. Cook County is one of the recipients under the Statewide Health Improvement Program, or SHIP.
 
The grant will be locally controlled, and Grand Marais has been designated as a focus community for work on school nutrition at ISD 166 as well as increasing active living through more access to walking and biking.

According to school nurse and SHIP coordinator, Kristin DeArruda Wharton, all of these SHIP interventions have been chosen because they have been proven to decrease obesity and chronic disease. SHIP tackles the top three causes of preventable illness and death in the United States: tobacco use, physical inactivity and poor nutrition.

Cook County Public Health and Human Services and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic are partnering in support of the local efforts.