What are the impacts?

Healthy Northland works to make the healthy choice, the easy choice. How do we know if what we are doing works? All the work we do has evidence behind it - we only use strategies that have been proven to work.

In 2018, we wanted to dig a little deeper to show the impact these strategies are having locally. In partnership with The Improve Group, an evaluation firm, we looked at three projects in our region.

In Virginia, Minn., Healthy Northland has partnered with a number of other organizations to increase access to healthy, local food since 2016. In a survey, 89% of residents said they eat more local foods and have healthier diets thanks to this work. Read more about the strategies and results here.

In Itasca County, 18 businesses have worked with Healthy Northland on improving health in the workplace since 2015. One staff member from a participating business said, “Even the most conservative employers, once they see the financial benefits and lifestyle changes, are going to grab onto these concepts.” Read more about workplace wellness and its impacts in Itasca County here.

Finally, we looked at the impact of pedestrian- and bike-friendly streets in Cloquet. 100% of local businesses contacted said sales have increased or stayed the same since street changes were made. Read about the road project and the results here.