Setsu Tanemura coordinates the Tuesday Ladies, a group of women who first gathered on Tuesdays at Seattle's Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church to sew a quilt honoring the church's 75th anniversary. Thirty years later, they are still meeting, making crafts for the annual church bazaar and holding sumptuous potlucks to celebrate members' birthdays.

These days, their potlucks are probably healthier thanks to their church's participation in a Hutchinson Center study called Eating for a Healthy Life. Conducted in partnership with the Church Council of Greater Seattle, the study was designed to learn how to help large groups of people make healthier eating choices. The study emphasized reducing the amount of fat and increasing the amounts of fruits, vegetables and whole grains in participants' diets, strategies known to help prevent certain cancers.

"If you've been doing things one way for 60 or 70 years, you don't change overnight, but the program gave us good examples of how we could start," Tanemura said.

Eating for a Healthy Life, led by Dr. Deb Bowen of the Center's Public Health Sciences Division, reached out to 54 faith communities of various religions and denominations because supporting the health and well-being of their members is often part of the communities' mission.

Over the course of Blaine Memorial's nine-month involvement, a study coordinator organized cooking demonstrations and provided recipes, sample foods and brochures for the Tuesday Ladies and other congregation members. The Tuesday Ladies said they appreciated learning to be more aware of the ingredients they cook with, and they welcomed hints about how to cook for just one or two people since few, if any, still have children living at home.

"We got tons of great recipes out of it, not just one or two," Tanemura said. "We all enjoyed the program very much."

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