If you can’t resist picking up that chocolate bar while going through the grocery store checkout counter, you’ll soon have a “fresher” option to help fight the urge.
The Tooele County Live Fit Coalition and Macey’s Food and Drug Store in Tooele have teamed up to open the county’s first healthy checkout lane on Monday.
Apples, bananas and other non-refrigerated fruits and vegetables will line the special checkout lane, replacing the candy and soda shoppers typically see, said Morgan Long of the Tooele County Health Department.
The new lane will be a pilot program in a movement Long hopes will spread to other grocers and cities. Live Fit Coalition chairwoman Malaena Toohey said the healthy checkout lane will help parents and children avoid the tempting junk food lining other lanes.
To celebrate the occasion, Macey’s will hold a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony for the healthy checkout lane at 10 a.m. Monday. Following the ceremony, there will be a bounce house, fruit sampling and coloring sheets for children. The community event is free.
The movement behind the pilot program began in 2012, when the health department founded the Live Fit Coalition. Composed of a mix of county officials like Long and concerned citizens, the coalition’s vision is to promote a “healthy and safe community for all Tooele County residents.”
When the coalition first started, Long said it focused mainly on promoting healthy physical activity. At the time, the county had the highest adult and child obesity rate in the state.
“Now we’re trying to broaden our focus to the whole body,” Long said. The push for healthier checkout lanes supports that mission, she added.
Last October, the coalition applied for and received state funding through the Environment, Policy and Improved Clinical Care program formed by the Utah Department of Health in July 2013.
Coalition leaders are using the money to increase the public’s access to fresh produce and low-cost physical activities, such as hiking trails. The EPICC grant will last four years.
The coalition participated in a similar event last week, when the Vine Street Market convenience store began selling fresh produce and chilled fruit/vegetable snacks. Toohey said both the events at the Vine Street Market and Macey’s will help effect permanent change in county residents’ health.
“All these initiatives are to make the healthy choice the easy choice, through policy and environmental change,” she said.
One of the coalition’s most notable sponsored activities includes the Fit to Win fat loss challenge. More than 100 people participated in the challenge last September, which was a repeat of a similar challenge posed last spring.