BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana has given more than 1,100 small businesses, schools and higher education institutions a special designation designed to show they're making healthy choices.
The state health department announced this week that a little more than a year after launching the initiative, 1,166 places have been named "WellSpots" across Louisiana.
To earn the designation, businesses and organizations must be smoke-free in addition to meeting other place-specific criteria. For schools, the criteria include healthy food options and time for late students to eat breakfast, for example.
The voluntary project is designed to help combat obesity and other health problems in one of the nation's unhealthiest states. The designation doesn't carry any financial reward from the state. Those that earn the designation get special signage.
