MILFORD — Alison Weeks is mixing the contents of a sizzling stir fry while answering questions at the Milford Community Building.

"Low sodium, low carbs, low sugar — that's the three rules of diabetes — truly," she said as she prepared a low-sodium dish that was big on chicken and broccoli.

[caption id="attachment_106283" align="alignright" width="215"] Alison Weeks prepares a stir fry Tuesday at the Milford Community Building. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.[/caption]

Weeks is the Chronic Disease & Obesity Coordinator for Live Well Kosciusko and was giving a demonstration of how diabetics (and those who want to eat more healthy) can improve their diet during the first of a series of meetings in collaboration with the Milford Collective, a relatively new group that aims to bring awareness to services and other programs in northern Kosciusko County.

Three more weekly meetings are part of Teaching Tuesday that will continue at 2 p.m. each week and are organized by Live Well Kosciuako in hopes of promoting healthy habits and a better understanding of the community's most problematic chronic health issues.

To a great degree, the series is a unique effort to bring such services out to smaller rural communities

"Getting somebody out there and going to them instead of them coming to us — it's incredible that we're able to do that," Weeks said.

Karena Wilkinson, director of Milford Collective, said she thinks the outreach effort to Milford is important.

"There's a lot of county resources available but only No. 1, if you know about them and No. 2, if you have accessibility to Warsaw, Wilkinson said. "Quite a few in our community are vehicularly challenged ... not all of them have vehicles or can drive."

The series is being funded with money from Health First Kosciusko County, which has expanded health service programs in the county since being established less than two years ago.

The free future workshops will focus on balancing nutrition with regular activity, how to monitor, manage, and reduce high blood pressure and understanding obesity.

You can learn more at the Live Well Kosciusko Facebook page.

Milford Collective is less than a year old and is an offshoot of Harvest Coffee, formerly a non-profit coffee shop that had been doing a variety of community events.

Wilkinson remains at Harvest and also works for the town of Milford as the town coordinator.

"I wear many hats," she said.

"It all makes this perfect mess," she said with a light laugh.

"Just kind of being a squeaky wheel for the northern part of the county," she said.

She's also involved with the Kosciusko Food Security Coalition and the Kosciusko Chronic Disease Coalition and eventually got to know Weeks through Live Well.

In January the collective established events for seniors on Thursdays and wanted to expand to Tuesdays for classes.

After the March series concludes, she said they want to continue to develop educational programs on Tuesdays.

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