Checking out health

Photo by Michael Woodward, Reporter

HEALTHY STRATEGY -- Tim Trimble, store manager at the Wal-Mart in Anderson, explains the details of product placement to Anderson Middle School students Jonni Hinton, Emily Lafayette and Ally Lafayette. Also involved in the project, but not pictured, are James and Rebecca Lariza.

A group of students from Anderson Middle School are experimenting with the health of South County shoppers. In about three weeks, the Wal-Mart in Anderson will replace the sweets in some checkout lanes with healthier snack options. The students are engaged in making this change in the community through the guidance of Shasta County Public Health’s Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC).

Jonni Hinton, Emily Lafayette, Ally Lafayette, James Lariza and Rebecca Lariza came up with the project in a brainstorming session focusing on how to improve kids’ health. Shasta County Public Health Community Organizer Christine Haggard said she isn’t aware of any previous effort to remove sweets from the checkout lanes. Since no one has tried this project before, Public Health as well as Wal-Mart store manager Tim Trimble are anxious to see how well the trial run performs.Store manager Tim Trimble has planned to use two registers for the 30-day trial run

of the project. He agreed to post signs in dicating the test lanes and plans for Wal-Mart greeters to pass out flyers to introduce shoppers to the project. Trimble said that the project has a good chance

of succeeding, as bananas near the checkout lanes already sell very well.“If my daughter hits me up for a candy bar, I might say no,” Trimble said. “But if she hits me up for fresh fruit, I’m

more likely to say yes. ”After the trial run, the students will conduct a survey of Wal-Mart customers. The survey must determine that 10 percent of shoppers approve the change before Wal-Mart in Anderson will support a permanent change.“If it works, we can grow the program depending on sales,” Trimble said.The students created the idea for the Wal-Mart project through Photovoice, a HEAC program that tells stories with pictures to encourage change.“They took pictures of what they like, and they took pictures of what kept them from having fun,” said Shasta County Public Health Assistant Jeri Butler.