Summit County Launches Five-Year Health Plan Targeting Food Access, Immunizations

Summit County Deputy Health Director Kendra Babitz and epidemiologist Nancy Porter brought the county's first formal Community Health Improvement Plan before local officials last Thursday, laying out a five-year roadmap that puts food access, immunization rates and community coordination at the center of public health work through 2030.

The plan, known as the CHIP, grew from a countywide Community Health Assessment and was shaped by more than 40 local stakeholders and community partners. It identifies three core priorities: strengthening coordination among government, healthcare and nonprofit organizations; improving food and nutrition access to address food insecurity across the county; and raising immunization coverage among populations with lower uptake rates.

The CHIP's framing is deliberately broad. County health leaders built the plan around the social drivers of health, meaning housing, transportation and nutrition are treated as health issues alongside clinical services. Affordable housing and economic stability were specifically cited as root causes tied to chronic disease and behavioral health outcomes, directly connecting the Health Department's work to ongoing County Council debates about land use and housing policy.

That connection is intentional. Officials described the CHIP as a tool for aligning limited public health resources, making the case for grant applications, and building formal partnerships with hospitals and nonprofits. By anchoring programming to evidence-based, community-shaped priorities, the department positioned itself to pursue targeted funding and measure results in ways that previous, less-structured efforts could not.

The plan creates specific benchmarks, including measurable improvements in immunization coverage and documented increases in access to nutritious food, that residents can use to hold the Health Department and its partners accountable over the five-year window.

The rollout marks the first time Summit County has formalized this kind of comprehensive planning framework. For Babitz, Porter and their partners, the CHIP is less a finished product than a starting structure: one that ties public health spending to community-defined needs while giving county budget decisions a data-backed rationale as programming ramps up through 2026.