By Erin Mccarthy
The Philadelphia Inquirer
MERCHANTVILLE, Pa. — Anthony Perno watched closely as Joshua George sprinkled tomatoes and mozzarella onto flatbread.
George, a chef and dietitian, was manning the grill outside the Merchantville Fire Department, making the unusual pizzas for firefighters and their family members Friday as part of a Camden County and Cooper University Health Care program to promote healthy living among local first responders.
About 75 percent of firefighters are obese, according to Cooper officials.
Perno, 39, has been a volunteer firefighter with the Merchantville department for 13 years. He also is chief executive of Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, the Camden redevelopment nonprofit.
“Do I want to eat healthy? Yes. Do I eat healthy? No,” he said with a laugh.
George taught the 20-plus people in attendance how to make vegetable pasta with chicken, a single-serving fish and vegetable meal, and the grilled flatbreads. He handed out step-by-step instructions to take home.
The program, part of the Helping Our Heroes campaign, hopes to stop at all Camden County fire departments, said Maxwell Kursh, a program manager at Cooper. Since 2013, Cooper physicians have been doing physicals and preventive cardiovascular screenings at local fire houses.
The program’s first healthy-cooking demonstration was held last month at the Collingswood department.
As Perno watched George grill the mini-pizzas -- about 200 calories each -- he said he could see himself actually eating that instead of a 600-calorie burger. They were tasty and satisfying, Perno said.
“I was amazed,” he said. “When you think about dieting, you think about not being full.”
Kevin Patti, fire chief of the Merchantville department, said the firefighters sometimes cook at the station Tuesday nights after their weekly training drills.
But “usually we go and get pizza,” said Patti, 45, a 25-year veteran of the department. “This is good. It’s giving us another option.”
He said firefighters do not usually think or talk about healthy eating.
Patti cited the statistic that nearly half of firefighting deaths result from heart attacks.
“It’s sad, because it’s preventable,” he said.
Merchantville has not experienced any, he said.
Gloria Hermanns, 57, was chopping tomatoes at a table inside the station. Her husband, Bob, a Merchantville firefighter for 38 years, was at his day job as a foreman at an overhead-door company. She came to the demonstration because both she and her husband are trying to lose weight.
For her husband and other firefighters, she said, eating healthy is especially important “so they’re physically fit, and if they do get hurt, they heal faster.”
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