Live Well Watertown will kick off a series of healthy eating and cooking demonstrations this week at the Watertown Farmers Market.
The Farmers Market runs from 2-6 p.m. on Thursday, July 23, at the Arsenal on the Charles, and features vendors with a variety of local food options. Live Well Watertown will have recipe ideas, have a seed planting activity for kids and there will be face painting. As a bonus, from 3-5 p.m., take a behind the scenes tour of the Farmers Market.
Future events include cooking classes at the Watertown Free Public Library, which will also be taped by Watertown Cable for those who cannot attend.
The series culminates the first year for the group which has the goal of promoting healthy living in town, said Stephanie Venizelos, project coordinator for Live Well Watertown.
“The concept grew out of the (Watertown) Health Department,” Venizelos said. “The goal was to involve Recreation (Department) and the schools.”
The group launched with the help of a grant from Mount Auburn Hospital’s Community Health Division, she said. The grant was submitted by Watertown Community Gardens.
Many groups contribute to making Live Well Watertown go, including the Health, Recreation, and Community Planning and Development departments, Venizelos said.
Along with the healthy eating/cooking series, this year Live Well Watertown also sponsored a community-wide snowshoeing event and held a forum to discuss new initiatives aimed at improving community wellbeing.
Venizelos said they have plans for later in the year, including joining with the Recreation Department to run a healthy living program for residents age 55 and older.
Live Well Watertown continues to grow and change, but the partnership with the town is a good step, said Venizelos.
“We are looking at different models,” she said. “These types of efforts don’t always get into the municipality.”
Venizelos has looked at other successful health and wellness initiatives in the area, including Shape Up Somerville, efforts by the Cambridge Health Department, Healthy Waltham and Healthy Wey in Weymouth.
For more information about Live Well Watertown email stephaniev@livewellwatertown.org, or go to http://www.livewellwatertown.