Rural Health Initiative gets AT&T grant

The Rural Health Initiative received a $5,000 grant Thursday from AT&T Wisconsin to further efforts to improve the health of farm families in northeast Wisconsin.

The grant funding was provided through the AT&T Investment and Innovation program, which AT&T external affairs director Robyn Gruner described as a source for helping local-based nonprofits to grow. Gruner said she first learned about RHI from state representative and farm owner Gary Tauchen.

“The goal is for AT&T to find community based programs that are doing good things in the community and impacting the lives of our neighbors,” Gruner said.

AT&T gives out 10 grants per year to Wisconsin programs through the Investment and Innovation program, Gruner said.

Rhonda Strebel, the initiative’s director, said the money will offset the costs of an educational program it is implementing that looks at changing health behaviors. For much of this year, Strebel and her staff have been executing a program called Sugar Busters, working to cut back the amount of sugary beverages like sodas and energy drinks that farm workers consume, because they are contributing to more cases of diabetes at a younger age.

The average number of sugary drinks consumed by farm workers in the RHI’s coverage area — Shawano, Waupaca and Outagamie counties — is three per day. Strebel said there was one farm worker RHI met with who consumed 16 sugary drinks daily.

RHI staff meets with farm workers during regular health screenings and provides education on the impact of sugary beverages to their bodies. They also ask the workers to try and cut back on their soda consumption by 50 percent.

“If they drink two a day, they can cut back to one a day,” Strebel said.

In some of the larger dairies, especially among Hispanic farm workers, RHI staff were seeing abnormally high blood sugar results. Strebel said most of that was attributed to energy drinks.

“They were looking for the extra energy — the extra sugar — for those long days,” she said. “We recognized that we have a very serious situation on our hands.”

Tauchen, who owns Harmony Valley Dairy, said he had a soda vending machine on site to quench his workers’ thirsts. When he learned from RHI about the health hazards his workers faced from this service, he started bringing in bottles of water to give to his workers.

“The soda consumption has decreased considerably,” Tauchen said. “It not only impacts the employees but the employers, too. There’s a problem, and you need to help your employees so they can continue to work hard.”

The follow-ups started Nov. 1, and although they have not been completed, Strebel said many of the farm families her staff has revisited have cut back on their sugary beverage consumption, using water as an alternative.

“We do the follow-ups and ask, ‘Now that you know the risks, now that you know the health effects that it can have on you, have you made any lifestyle changes?’” Strebel said.

Strebel has also been educating about the false belief that Gatorade is a healthier alternative to sodas. Gatorade has the same amount of sugar as soda, she said.

“Sometimes people think they’re getting more electrolytes or other benefits from Gatorade, and that’s actually a misnomer.”

The grant will help to educate 100 individuals, Strebel said.

Strebel said RHI will implement another healthy behavior program next year that encourages farm families to consume more fruits and vegetables. She said that, even though farmers grow crops, they are mainly for the animals, and the farmers don’t always incorporate fruits and vegetables into their diets.

The Rural Health Initiative started in Shawano County 14 years in 2004 after a year of meetings between the University of Wisconsin-Extension, ThedaCare, farm families and other entities concerned with the farming community. The program, which takes health care to the farms, expanded in 2012 to include Waupaca and Outagamie counties.