In Harrison County, a city farmers' market helped more than 300 kids last summer learn about and "purchase" fruits and vegetables with tokens from its free Power of Produce Club.
In Fayette County, students are learning to compost their garbage through a pilot program at two schools. In Ohio County, a truck equipped with 30 sets of personal gardening tools roams Wheeling, aiding school groups, churches and apartment complexes - anyone who wants to start a garden of their own.
All of those community projects and dozens more in West Virginia have gotten their start in the last three years, with help from mini-grants from Try This West Virginia. The third-annual Try This Conference, slated for June 3 and June 4 at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, will empower even more community leaders to launch other projects, with more than $110,000 to award in grants this year.
Try This West Virginia is a coalition of organizations statewide, with representatives from the state Bureau for Public Health, WV Healthy Kids and Families, KEYS 4HealthyKids, the WV Family Resource Network, the WV Food and Farm Coalition and other health-focused groups dedicated to reversing the state's negative health trends.
The event has sparked interest from community leaders and partners across the state since its inception - in its first year, more than 350 people made the trip to Buckhannon for the grassroots networking and learning event, and last year saw an even greater response, with more than 500 people signed up to attend the two-day event.
This year is no different, said Kate Long, a Try This organizer. More than 500 people have already signed up for this year's event, which has 550 slots, and organizers anticipate the event will fill up ahead of the weekend, Long said.
"The ultimate aim, long term, is to knock the state off the top of the worst health lists," she said. "That's going to take years, and what we're doing right now is building a grassroots network of motivated local people who will connect them with all the creative things happening in the medical field, as well as anything the state can do. We're just doing our part."
As with previous years, this year's conference will feature dozens of breakout sessions on subjects ranging from community gardening to natural playgrounds. It will also feature, for the first time, sessions and a panel discussion geared toward addressing drug abuse at the community level, Long said, including how healthy living initiatives can be used to combat addiction.
"Physical activity and nutrition aren't magic wands where drug addiction and recovery are concerned, but they are effective tools," she said. "Often when I talk to local officials, they'll tell me "I would love to start some healthy programs in my community, but we are eaten up with drugs, and we have to deal with that.' Starting healthy programs is drug prevention - if you have fewer teenagers saying 'there's nothing to do, so let's do drugs,' that's a good thing."
The weekend will also feature a greater focus on relaxation and stress relief, with daily meditation, tai chi and yoga sessions, Long said.
Try This has already helped launch several well-received community programs in the last three years, and many of the recipients of Try This mini-grants, which average only $1,000 to $2,000, have leveraged their money into matching funds and expanded the reach of their programs - one Clarksburg based project turned $1,500 into $15,000, Long said.
"We've caught a wave that was already happening - we caught a wave at the right time," she said. "People hate to open the paper and see that we're on another worst health list, and they want to do something about it, but people aren't born knowing what to do. What Try This does is offer them how-to information, a lot of ideas, connections with other West Virginians doing the same, and resources."
Try This also has a website, www.trythiswv.com, where users can find more than 100 how-tos on healthy cooking, starting exercise programs and generating funding for community projects.
The Try This conference is a project of the WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition, the WV Association of Counties, the WV Office of Child Nutrition, Change The Future WV, WV Food and Farm Coalition, WVU Extension, West Virginia Farmers Market Association, UniCare, West Virginia Primary Care Association, KEYS 4HealthyKids, WV on the Move, WV Bureau for Public Health, WV Community Development Hub, Main Street WV, American Friends Service Committee, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, West Virginia School-Based Health Assembly, Step by Step, the WV Council of Churches, and the WV Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
For more information on this year's conference, including descriptions of sessions and speakers, visit www.trythiswv.com/conference.
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.