16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 14-20, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Seven-and-a-half years ago, Tiffany DiTullio and her team were given the task to improve the overall health of the Salinas community on behalf of the national Blue Zones Project. Soon the charge grew to include coastal communities, then nearly all of Monterey County. Recently the team learned their task is completed—on Aug. 5 they announced the national organization had certified Monterey County as a Blue Zones Community, the first county in California to achieve the status. The Blue Zones Project was founded on the research of journalist Dan Buettner, who studied regions of the world where people live long, healthy lives. Since 2009 BZP has launched 75 community initiatives, encouraging people to make healthier choices through changes to the built environment, policies and social networks. Buettner visited Salinas in 2019 to help launch Blue Zones Project Salinas. Salinas Valley Health, Taylor Farms and Montage Health provided the financial support. As the program expanded, Blue Zones Project Monterey County sponsored walking groups, volunteer projects, cooking demonstrations and workshops. To achieve certification, BZPMC had to achieve certain metrics, DiTullio says. In Salinas organizers had to enlist 50 percent of the largest employers to become Blue Zones workplaces, plus 50 percent of public schools, at least 25 percent of grocery stores and 10 percent of restaurants. The city was named a Blue Zones Community in 2024. Across the county 70 workplaces representing 14,000 employees implemented health-oriented policies and 64 campuses across 14 school districts adopted improvements. Sixty-two restaurants achieved the Blue Zones Project Approved designation. “We could barely keep up with the number of organizations that wanted to participate,” DiTullio says. BZPMC also had to document incremental improvements in health. In 2019 researchers from Boston University conducted a baseline community survey asking about social determinants of health. Follow-up surveys were done in 2021, 2023 and 2025. Results showed there was a 13-percent increase in people reporting they are “thriving in daily life,” from 59 to 66 percent of the county’s population. There was a 10-percent increase in people reporting they exercise at least 30 minutes three or more days per week. They also found that 42-percent fewer residents reported high cholesterol. An overall community well-being score improved by 3.7 points since 2019, from 63.2 to 66.9. County residents reported improvements in four areas—community, social, purpose, physical—with physical taking the biggest jump, from 62.1 to 69. The only metric where the county decreased was financial, falling from 63.7 in 2019 to 60.3 this year. BZPMC as a project is now complete, and its offices are closing. Montage Health Foundation and Salinas Valley Health will integrate some of the programs into their own. Certified Fresh Monterey County becomes the first in the state to be called a Blue Zones Community. By Pam Marino A woman leads children in a Blue Zones community event. More than 41,000 people took part in Blue Zones Project Monterey County activities, the group reports. NEWS “We could barely keep up.” COURTESY BLUE ZONES MONTEREY COUNTY
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