Fort Lewis College wants to graduate students prepared for the workforce or graduate school – and it wants to send them off with healthier lifetime habits.

The college signed a three-year commitment with Partnership for a Healthier America to increase its offerings of healthful food and access and opportunities for physical activity. FLC is one of more than 40 campuses nationwide to make the commitment, which will affect more than 1 million people.

“Active minds in active bodies is one of the characteristics I want Fort Lewis College students to exemplify while they’re on campus and after they graduate,” FLC President Dene Thomas said.

Partnership for a Healthier America allows its collegiate participants to select guidelines to complete based on each school’s needs and abilities. It gives credit for initiatives already undertaken.

“Jeff (Jeff DuPont, director of health and wellness for the college) heard about this at a conference,” said Doug Ewing, director of recreation services. “He knew we were doing most of this and not getting acknowledgement for it. We’re the first college or university in Colorado to sign the agreement.”

FLC, which draws students because of the significant outdoor recreation available, committed to 10 food and fitness guidelines.

Ewing has a short to-do list to complete the fitness commitments, including marking a two-mile walking route.

“We started a Walk to Wellness program over noon hours last year,” he said. “We mapped 10 different routes, ranging from one-quarter mile to 2.5 miles. We’ll have those on the website, and hopefully have handout maps, by the fall.”

He plans to select the specific two-mile route by fall, but marking it will take longer.

Another requirement is to have one bicycle parking spot for every 15 people on campus.

“We’ll have to do an inventory,” Ewing said, “and we may have that already, because we have a lot of bike racks.”

FLC offers outdoor equipment checkout, outdoor pursuits, a ski and bike maintenance shop and group exercise classes, some of the requirements of the agreement. It also offers significantly more than the minimum of 40 diverse noncompetitive fitness opportunities and competitive intramural or informal recreation opportunities and monthly classes such as Women and Weights, Heart Healthy and Nutritional Smarts.

“We offer between 40 and 50 outdoor clinics and trips each year, depending on where the major trips are going,” Ewing said.

The college committed to nutrition guidelines, many of which Sodexo, the campus dining provider, meets.

“We offer vegan and vegetarian meals at every meal, a full salad bar all day every day, gluten-free items and a simple-serving allergens station, guaranteed free of the eight most-common allergens,” said Cindy Walz, director of food services for Sodexo. “I’m buying a lot of local and organic food to meet the Real Food Challenge, so we’re definitely making progress.”

Desserts at 150 calories or less also are a guideline, and a cookie, a Rice Krispie treat or mousse in a small cup, frequent Sodexo desserts, meet the requirement, she said. Sodexo also works to limit fried foods and provide caloric labeling.

“We have a big shift to conquer,” Walz said. “We’ve been bombarded for so long with cheap, fast food, it’s a shock to the system to move to healthy food.”

The agreement ends with the college promising to develop options for food-insecure students. The Grub Hub, which provides a food pantry and hot meals a few times a week, is student-run.

abutler@durangoherald.com