September is "Attendance ​Awareness Month”

We know that in order for children to learn and achieve at school, they need to BE THERE. School attendance is, therefore, one of the measures
Austin Aspires uses to evaluate progress in our
collective work.

As we researched best practices in promoting
positive attendance behaviors, Austin Aspires has learned about a national organization called
Attendance Works.

...for Healthy Eating Behaviors

It was my junior year of high school in my careers class where I was introduced to a career in dietetics. My teacher, Mrs. Stevenson, gave us a magazine listing possible careers and assigned a project to choose a career of interest to us and write a paper on it. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I kept flipping back to the page listing dietetics. My teacher sensed my interest and suggested that I write my paper on dietetics. She reached out to a dietitian at the hospital to set up a time for me to interview her. I wrote my paper
on dietetics never imagining that 10 years later I’d be back in Austin working as a Hy-Vee dietitian.

By Getting Kids Off To A Healthy Start

All children should have a chance to grow up healthy! Most young children in Minnesota spend at least part of their day in care outside of their homes. Food and activity choices are often limited
to those provided by the adults in their life. Child care settings provide an ideal environment where providers can aid in the development of healthy eating habits and promote positive active play and
behaviors.

​Communities looking to foster environments that reflect and impact the well-being of those who call it home are wise to rethink why farmers markets matter. That’s a question local folks have been asking over the past several months and
specifically through a community-wide survey. Not only what a thriving common market in Austin might look and feel like, but why developing a common market rather than
multiple markets even matters. Here’s a glimpse at what we are learning…