St. Croix County HHS highlights prenatal vitamins, school hydroponics and new public health strategist

Public health staff for St. Croix County briefed the Health & Human Services Board on Dec. 17 about several small-scale programs aimed at maternal and child nutrition and community health planning.

Staff said the reproductive health clinic partnered with Pierce County and applied for the Vitamin Angels program to provide prenatal vitamins at the point of pregnancy confirmation. In a separate effort, WIC nutritionists reallocated unspent Fit Families grant funds to support the New Richmond School District’s hydroponic grow towers; the program currently operates five towers producing an estimated 50–75 pounds of lettuce every six weeks, which supports the backpack program that sends food home with students.

Genevieve Palazzolo, introduced to the board as the new public health strategist, said the county’s CHA/CHIP (community health assessment and improvement plan) website went live the same day. Palazzolo described the CHA/CHIP as the result of resident-collected assessments that will inform the county’s 2026–2030 improvement plan and invited the public to review the materials online.

Palazzolo also described work tied to an opioid-settlement-funded project that embeds a substance-use professional within child protective services; she said her role includes designing the evaluation plan to measure outcomes such as separation and reunification timing and service access.

Board members asked how outreach for programs such as the private-well nitrate survey is being driven; Palazzolo said the survey filters by county and municipality, and outreach has included clinic posters, website posts, community-development links and posters in local areas.

Palazzolo asked for community participation in surveys and noted upcoming public events tied to these efforts.