The MACo President’s Healthy Counties Best Practices Award was started by 2012 President, Ingrid Turner (Council Member, Prince George’s County). The award recognizes Maryland county programs that enhance the health of a county through best practices and innovative programs and partnerships that enrich services to citizens while improving upon or maintaining the fiscal wellness of the county. Current MACo President, Rick Pollitt (County Executive, Wicomico County), is proud to continue Council Member Turner’s award and announce the winners of the 2013 President’s Award:
Rural Winner: Worcester County’s Low Cost Spay & Neuter Clinic
This program offers spaying and neutering of cats and dogs performed by Dr. Willliam Schultz at Worcester County Animal Control in Snow Hill. Since these are such desperate times, the reduced rates of $50.00 to spay or neuter a cat and $100.00 for dogs is an affordable service that may otherwise forego being done. The program was approved by the Worcester County Commissioners in December of 2011 and began in March of 2012. It is performed 2 Mondays a month at the shelter and is a self sufficient program. 167 animals had surgeries in 2012 and as of date in 2013 65 animals. Surgeries are performed and the animals are picked up the same day to return home. This does not entail any extra hours for Animal Control but a service that is performed during normal working hours.
Urban Winner: Baltimore City’s Baltimarket Virtual Supermarket Program
The Virtual Supermarket Program (VSP) demonstrates that online grocery delivery is a viable solution to bring healthy and affordable food options to low-income food desert neighborhoods. The VSP enables residents to place grocery orders at their local library, elementary school, senior/disabled housing building or even from their own computer to be picked up at their community site for no delivery cost. VSP staff provides assistance to residents without computer access or experience. Residents can pay for their groceries using cash, credit, debit and EBT/SNAP (food stamps). To encourage healthy eating, the program provides recipe cards, healthy cooking demonstrations, and a $10 incentive coupon for healthy food.
The Awards Committe had a hard time selecting the winners of this year’s award. Read about all of our nominees for this year’s MACo President’s Healthy Counties Best Practices Award.
