more available; education about health disparities and equal access to health and health care; and policy change to support the goals of the Coalition." BHR played a leading role in the campaign to eliminate whole milk, bringing the partners together through its Nutrition Work group Known as "Nut/Fit"), and Fine clued both the Montefiore School which health Program and the Bronx District Public Health Office of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (BxDPHO). BHR was also instrumental in educating its Coalition members about obesity and the benefits of reduced fat milk, thereby garnering both parent and community support for campaign
The Bronx Healthy Hearts (BHH) project grew out of the Nut/Fit Work group as a strategy to address nutrition and fitness education n the schools, Previously, the Nut/Fit workgroup had sponsored activities in local restaurants and small grocery stores, including a campaign to promote low fat milk in these ettings, and was seeking a mechanism to link these efforts with activities that would involve school children and their parents, Funded in 2003, BHH's primary goal was to establish wellness Councils at both the school and district levels to initiate local environmental and policy changes to ensure a healthy school population. The New York State Department f Health, which funded the Healthy Hearts project, recommended the implementation of the 1% or Less low-fat milk campaign as a way to get started, on the basis of the success of a similar program in upstate New York. As most of the schools did not have cooking cafeterias, changing the menus would have been quite difficult. The milk policy provided he group with an opportunity to improve nutrition even in schools without cooking capacity
Other key players included the Region Office of School Health, and the Jacobi Weight Management Program, The Region Office is responsible for ensuring schools in the Bronx meet the health education and health services needs of the students, and provides services, support and technical assistance to individual schools to meet the state health