keep it fit chicago | SALVATION ARMY
Vivian Leung, a 1st year medical student with Rush Hospital, discusses some of the key points of fitness with a participant of the Keep Fit Chicago program.
Photos courtesy of The Salvation Army, Metropolitan Division
quick tip
Looking for a way to volunteer? Visit
www.keepfitchicago.org to find out more about the program and how to enroll.
do know that low income families do not have access to fresh food.” The number one goal is to help the families in the program change their lifestyle, even if it means traveling further to get nutritional food and learning new methods of food preparation.
“It also is about changing attitudes,” Goldman said. “It is important for the members of the family who shop and prepare the food to be part of the program, as is eating together as a family.”
Each month of the program, the participating families will meet at Salvation Army’s Temple Corps Community Center, 1 N. Ogden Blvd., for a variety of activities. One month, the participants might hear a lecture about diabetes, or get a healthy cooking lesson on meatless chili or how to prepare low-fat tacos. Or they might take a field trip. Last year, participants visited a Rush University Medical Center anatomy lab for a first-hand look at how the body works. They also got to see what 25 pounds of fat looks like.
Army staff lead Keep It Fit Chicago registrants in a variety of exercises at each session, which ends with
participants sharing a healthy meal.
Rush medical students keep in touch weekly with their families by phone or in person to answer questions, or if needed, accompany the family to the store to teach them how to buy healthy food.
The benefit of this is two-fold. Not only do the participants learn health lifestyles, but the health care professionals learn about positively impacting targeted populations.
The majority of the 75 families participating last year reported that they lost weight, and some who participated last year are returning again, which fits the program model. The idea is to establish healthy patterns, become program volunteers and advocates, and then teaching others in their community program guidelines, according to Goldman.
One Keep it Fit Chicago participant wrote last year: “This program was helpful, especially the cooking experience! I copied the meal for Sunday dinner the next day.” She also reported opting to take the stairs instead of the elevator, increasing walking intervals, and being able to go from 2 minutes to 20 minutes on the elliptical machine.
Recruitment is currently underway. Interested persons can visit www.keepitfitchicago.org to find out more about the program and how to enroll. The site also contains helpful information on diet and exercise.
52 building healthier communities
did you know?
The program
teaches families
how to buy healthy foods, even in “food deserts.”
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