Our Stories

Lots of people start off a new year with a resolution to eat healthier. We’re no different, only LHCC is helping the whole state do that by putting our money where our mouths are by awarding more than $34,000 to 14 grantees across the state, all of whom are working to improve community food systems so that we can all eat healthier.

We all know what Southwest Louisiana has been through over the last few months. As if a pandemic and its consequences haven’t been hard enough, Southwest Louisiana has been punched again and again by storms, including Hurricanes Laura and Delta. When you have to reach into the Greek alphabet to start naming storms, you know it’s been a bad season. 

The Louisiana Healthy Communities Coalition is overjoyed to help and highlight the people up in north Louisiana fighting our twin chronic disease monsters, tobacco and obesity - those creeping, almost unseen causes of most death and disease. People are doing it by going back to the beginning and creating environments where people can be healthy by default – way before doctors, medicine and other scary, expensive treatments need to be called in.

LHCC, in its latest round of mini-grants, is providing communities grants of $1,000 to $3,000 - this time specifically to help people get healthy foods. The application deadline is Dec. 9 and the effort must be some type of policy, systems or environmental change (PSE).

Lake Charles is taking its commitment to Complete Streets ordinances very seriously – and even improving on them. Last summer LHCC helped create a Juneteenth “Better Block” event around the SWLA Center for Health Services, which demonstrated green space and different transportation options, such as bike lanes, around the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).

LHCC is funding more green space for people all over the state, which not only helps people be healthier, but brings them together! 

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, which is why the American Cancer Society staged the “Great American Smokeout” on Nov. 2. So how fitting is it that we are highlighting the Rapides Parish School system and Haynesville for their efforts to reduce smoking too!

Central Louisiana is really showing the way for towns and cities all over the state to be healthier and, boy, is LHCC proud to be a part of these efforts with our mini-grants! Health experts and elected officials often operate on different tracks when it comes to solving problems. However, research shows that when people and communities look at a problem in a more holistic way – meaning understanding that things are interconnected and that it’s better to look and treat something as a whole – we can come up with a real and lasting “fix.”