The first goal was to reduce obesity and increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables through the development of community/school gardens and orchards in Lake Worth, Palm Springs and Greenacres, FL. Many tactics were taken to achieve this goal. The first was the development of school and community gardens. In the course of the grant 27 school and community gardens were created, funded through a matching grant received from The Quantum Foundation. An additional three gardens outside of the project area are attributable to the HKHC grant; however no funding was used to create them. An agreement was made between the School District and each school principal or community site to carry the gardens on for at least five years. Included in the agreement were requirements on maintenance and usage by the students. Each garden was built through volunteer and student efforts. Hundreds of people contributed to the development of these educational spaces. A partnership with the University of Florida/IFAS Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension was instrumental in the success of this aspect of the project. They developed a school site specific class offered on a Saturday for teachers who wanted to learn about gardening. This class was offered free to teachers and was an ongoing product of the program. In addition, staff at Cooperative Extension grew all the seedlings for the HKHC gardens on their site. A survey of the garden coordinators was conducted at the end of the grant period evaluating the effect of the gardens on the schools, students, and community. In addition, language is being added this year to the School District’s Wellness Promotion Policy to encourage the development of gardens on school campuses. At the conclusion of the project a survey was conducted by the teachers and coordinators and their responses were organized in a PowerPoint presentation that has been uploaded to the dashboard.

The second goal of the project was to increase use of Joint/Mutual Use Agreements to expand service hours and access to the community's recreation facilities. The first site that was identified to be approached for a joint use agreement was Berkshire Elementary School. Additional funding was secured from the Palm Beach County Office of Community Revitalization. This funding, in addition to funding from the Palm Healthcare Foundation, developed a walking trail on the open field on the school’s campus. Fencing to separate the field from the rest of the school was paid for through a grant from the Quantum Foundation. A partnership was developed between the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department and the School District to open the area as a park on weekends and holidays. During week days it is used by the school for a walking classroom program, P.E. Classes and field days. The second site that was investigated was Lake Worth Middle School. Grant funding was received from the Law Enforcement Trust Fund to secure the campus. Fencing, security cameras, and gates were installed. Initial meetings with the City of Lake Worth took place and a verbal agreement was achieved from the city manager to partner on the joint use agreement. The School District’s legal department asked that the coalition wait until after the Berkshire agreement went through to process the second agreement. Unfortunately staff ran out of time and was unable to complete the agreement. The opportunity remains and efforts are being made to accomplish this task in 2014.

The third goal of the HKHC project was to develop and expand partnerships to focus on vending machine policy. A partnership was created with the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department. The staff was very interested in working on creating healthier vending opportunities at all Palm Beach County parks. A policy was developed that affected all of the public vending machines on Palm Beach County park property to include healthier options.

The fourth goal of the HKHC project was to increase opportunities for physical activity at parks in Lake Worth, Palm Springs, and Greenacres. The first tactic was to create a walking trail at the Spillway Park in Lake Worth. Funding was garnered from the Palm Beach County Resident Education Action Program (REAP) and the College Park Neighborhood Association. The city partnered to create this added value for the park and increased utilization of the space. The second tactic was to develop a Fitness Zone at an undeveloped piece of city owned property in Lake Worth. Fitness Zones are outdoor publicly accessible gyms. Funding came from The Quantum Foundation, The City of Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency, The Trust for Public Land, Wells Fargo Bank and The Palm Healthcare Foundation. The City of Lake Worth donated the land and included it as an official park within the city. The fitness zone is consistently used by the neighbors and has been a great success. The Community Redevelopment agency received funding from the Kaboom! organization to put in a children’s play area in the park. The City of Lake Worth has 27 miles of unpaved platted roads. Funding was received from the Florida Department of Transportation, Transportation Enhancement Funds to convert 5th Ave South into a greenway and serve as an example project for the remaining miles of roadway in the city. The final project was a Naturegrounds park. A location and draft plan was developed but the funding unfortunately was significantly less than what was anticipated. The funding that was received for the project was used to contribute to the 5th Ave S. project and the Fitness Zone playground.

The fifth goal was to improve children's ability to walk/bike to school through Safe Routes to School partnerships. A partnership was created at the School District that brings together all Safe Routes to School grantees throughout the county to discuss Safe Routes to School programs and facility improvements. The organization met once a month for the last three years. A bike master plan was adopted by the Palm Beach County Metropolitan Planning Organization Board in 2011. HKHC worked toward asking grant area municipalities to also adopt the portions of the plan related to their city to further support the inclusion of bike lanes in their master plans. Difficulty came when supporting staff were no longer able to help with this process. The policy change did not occur. Another tactic was to develop walking school buses in the grant area. Working with the Department of Health, a walking school bus was developed at Berkshire Elementary School. Though initially successful, it was met with difficulty when the District prohibited support of the program citing liability of children being in the care of parents who had not be fully vetted. The program eventually closed. Due to the safety/liability concerns HKHC partnered with South Florida Commuter Services to work to develop Walking Wednesdays. At the conclusion of the grant, very little progress was made on this aspect. Another partnership was developed with South Florida Commuter Services to promote biking to school at Forest Hill Community High School. It is a neighborhood school that has tremendous difficulty offering enough parking for everyone. A bike rack was purchased with funding from Palm Healthcare Foundation and installed with School District funds. South Florida Commuter Services developed a bike to school promotion to celebrate the students who came to school via bike and distributed safety information throughout the school.

The sixth goal for HKHC was to create sustainability in the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities grant. This goal was added in the final year of the project to ensure long term sustainability of the projects that were developed through this grant. The first tactic was education. The HKHC project sponsored the Learn Green Conference in 2012 and 2013. The Learn Green conference is a one day conference where teachers, administrators, facility professionals, parents and community members gather to learn how to make our schools greener. With the addition of HKHC, the conference goals were expanded to include wellness, health, and a tract specific to the previous five goals of HKHC. The keynote speaker was chosen to support the goals and inspire the participants to continue their work in our schools. The second tactic of sustainability was to ensure that all projects within the grant were secured with a long term plan. The agreements are tied to organizations. HKHC believes that these projects will continue.