Lynchburg-Area Programs, Parks Aim To Encourage Healthy Living – Lynchburg News And Advance

Dr. Cate Varney and P.E. teacher Kelly Walters discuss childhood obesity in Charlottesville, Va.

Childhood obesity is a problem around the nation and in Virginia, and the Lynchburg area is no exception.

Dr. Michael Jones, a specialist in bariatric medicine at Centra Weight Loss in Lynchburg, described childhood obesity as a significant and growing problem.

“It’s really becoming a huge issue,” Jones said. “It is estimated that the current generation of children will be the first generation of children in modern history that have a lower life expectancy than their parents. And we think a very significant percentage of that is the obesity epidemic.”

Jones spends a lot of time counseling and working with patients in the Lynchburg area who suffer from obesity and has worked in Lynchburg for almost five years.

He said he has become rather passionate about talking to patients who are young parents on addressing their obesity. He uses that as a means of helping their children.

“If you have one parent with obesity, you have a greater than 50% likelihood of developing obesity even if you were skinny as a rail all the way up through high school,” Jones said.

The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth was established in 1999 by the Virginia General Assembly and encourages youth in the commonwealth to make healthy choices by reducing and preventing tobacco use, substance use and childhood obesity. It did a survey in 2019 in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health, the Department of Education in Virginia and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Michael Parsons, director of programs for Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, said officials went to schools around the state and surveyed high school students ages 15 to 18, using that data to get an idea of what programs could help youth.

In the survey from 2019, about 32% of youths described themselves as slightly or very overweight, and about 18% said they were obese. 

“Both Southwest Virginia and Central Virginia do have childhood obesity rates that are higher than the statewide average,” Parsons said.

Parsons said the group is waiting for updated data to come in from last year, to see the effect the pandemic has had on obesity numbers.

“This has not been a normal two-year period, and so I’m not sure what it’s going to show us,” Parsons said. “I don’t know what the impact of school closures or what the impact of a public health pandemic will be on childhood obesity rates,” Parsons said.

Lynchburg Parks and Recreation has programs in place around the city for physical activity.

Jennifer Jones, director of parks and rec, said one big way the city provides physical activity and infrastructure is through neighborhood centers.

There are six such centers: College Hill, Daniels Hill, Diamond Hill, Fairview, Jefferson Park and Yoder in Timber Ridge. Activities at the centers include playgrounds and basketball courts that have been recently upgraded.

Lynchburg Parks and Recreation is working on several plans, such as the Jefferson Park Master Plan and the College Park Master Plan. Those efforts are intended to bring new infrastructure, including new sports courts, new ball fields and natural playgrounds.

Along with receiving the proper amount of physical activity, Jennifer Jones said eating the right amount of nutritious food is important. To that end, fresh produce is free at all neighborhood centers.

“A lot of times what’s missing isn’t necessarily the activity piece, it’s the nutrition piece, and we’ve really focused on making locally grown produce available,” she said.

Jennifer Jones also emphasized the educational piece.

At the centers, there are programs that teach children how to grow and harvest their own food.

There’s also a program called healthy eats in partnership with Virginia Cooperative Extension. In this program, kids learn the importance of healthy eating, the repercussions of not eating healthy and how to cook meals.

Also, Jennifer Jones said Lynchburg City Council has adopted in its Lynchburg Plan — a roadmap of how the city will accomplish council’s priorities — a 10-minute walk program, which is the idea of placing a park within a 10-minute walk of every neighborhood. She said this makes people three times as likely to get the recommended physical activity daily.

Overall, the parks and rec director emphasized that the department is conscious of this problem.

“We’re very conscious of this; health and wellness is one of three pillars in parks and recreation,” Jennifer Jones said. “So you know we are super focused on that.”

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