In San Antonio, Texas, Edison High School students, families, and community members partnered with school officials to open school’s new lighted track for a regular walking program. The Need for More Opportunities for Physical Activity
Awareness: Toward the beginning of her sophomore year, Edison High School student Brianna Reynosa began to notice there had been some changes to her school’s lunch menu. “It started with the new lunch menu. When I noticed the changes in the menu, I asked [Edison Principal] Mr. [Charles] Munoz about it and he began to tell me about how obesity was a problem in the community, and how he wanted the students at Edison to be healthy,” Brianna said. Before, Brianna hadn’t really stopped to think about the consequences that come with making ...
Atop a hill in East Los Angeles, Ramirez Meat Market has spent three decades as a neighborhood fixture. However, the market hasn’t been a beacon of health. Celia Ramirez, who has owned the store for the last 10 years, runs it by herself following her husband’s death in an automobile accident. Now, with some community help, Ramirez transformed her meat market from a typical junk-food-filled corner store into a place that where the community can find nutritious food options and embrace a healthier lifestyle.
The Need to Address Healthy Food
Awareness: East L.A. is an urban community that is 96% Latino and has high rates of obesity-related chronic diseases. Small corner stores and meat markets are abundant in the community, but sell mostly junk food and few fresh fruits and ...
Jalapenos, cilantro, garlic—“A lot of vegetables in meals and everything has to be hot,” said Sandra Gonzales. Sandra and her brother, Rudy Gonzales, made sure to stock those good-for-cooking-spicy-meals vegetables in the Nuevo Leon Meat Market, which Rudy has owned and operated for nearly a decade, in San Antonio’s predominantly Westside. But they had no other healthy choices—snacks like apples, bananas, or grapes—in an area that sorely lacks healthy food options. With a little help from the city and a big decision by Sandra and Rudy, the neighborhood that depends on Nuevo Leon for cooking essentials is now able to pick up fresh, healthier snacks.
Food Options at a Meat Market
On San Antonio’s Westside, a predominantly Latino community, there are lots of ...
“Tiendita por Vida” is Spanish for “little store for life.” That’s exactly Irma Bajarro's M&I Meat Market in the heart of San Antonio’s Westside is becoming. The Westside of San Antonio is predominantly Latino, with many residents working low-income, long-hour jobs. Eating healthy is not easy here; fast-food joints and small corner stores, which tend to have fewer healthy items than full grocery stores, line the streets and give kids ample choices of sugary drinks and fried snacks, rather than fruits and vegetables. Irma, who owns M&I, did not want to see another generation of diabetes growing up in her neighborhood.
Meat or Junk Food
Two years ago, if you walked into M&I, you’d have had two food options: meat or junk food. Besides the long meat ...
“It’s hard to engage the average youth in something where there is no choice.” That’s what Kymberly Lacrosse, a community organizer for the United Way of Santa Cruz County, Calif., said about the limited healthy food options in Watsonville. A multitude of unhealthy snacks, greasy fast food, and sugary drink options leave little room for other, healthier choices. Lacrosse mentors the youth involved in Jóvenes SANOS, a youth leadership group working to prevent and raise awareness about childhood obesity in Watsonville With almost half of children in the city overweight or obese, the youth of Jóvenes SANOS knew they had to help their small city get healthier. They eventually pushed for improved neighborhood food/dining options.
Obesity in Santa Cruz County
In ...
What are you eating for lunch? Snack food may be the quickest—and unhealthiest—choice. In Santa Cruz County, California, a youth leadership group called Jóvenes SANOS knew that their neighborhood needed to incorporate more healthy food options into daily life. That means healthy food even at bus stations.
Health in San Cruz County
Latinos comprise about 81% of the 50,000 people who live in Watsonville, Calif., which is situated in Santa Cruz County. Jóvenes SANOS, a youth leadership group seeking to increase opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity for Watsonville youth through implementing long-term change, understands that childhood obesity is a problem for all people. “[Half of people] in this community…are likely to eat fast food 1 to 3 times a ...
Healthy nutritional standards are vital for school districts, but the Wenatchee School District in Washington wasn’t providing the healthiest food environment it could for its 7,000-plus students. That is, until Kent Getzin, the district’s Director of Food Services, pushed for improvements to the district’s school wellness policy. Given that the state of Washington closely aligned with the national trend of one of three children being obese, Getzin seized the opportunity to educate school officials and parents on creating healthier food options in a district with a 46.2% Latino student population and 60% of students depending on free or reduced lunch. Getzin set his sights on updating the district’s outdated nutritional standards and emphasized continual support for ...
In communities where parks and land-space are limited, shared use agreements are providing more areas of recreation for children. Spartanburg, S.C., for example, does not have enough active spaces. Although the idea of sharing space in Spartanburg had existed for some time, formalizing shared use agreements between the City and two school districts—Spartanburg County School District 6 and Spartanburg County School District 7—took about two years. Thanks to the collaboration of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, the two school districts, and various community organizations, Spartanburg now has a shared use policy that keeps 10 school playgrounds open to the community during non-school hours.
The Issue of Physical Activity
Awareness: Since the late 1990s, members of the ...
San Antonio pedestrians and cyclists will now have safer streets and walkways thanks to the implementation of the citywide Complete Streets policy. This San Antonio Complete Streets policy has not only helped those living in the city’s Westside, but has also paved the way for residents throughout the entire community to gain a better understanding of how an active-living-friendly environment can foster healthier lives.
The Issue of Transportation
Awareness: Health professionals, including David Clear and Kathy Shields of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health), were beginning to see that obesity was a problem in San Antonio (63% Latino). Along with obesity, many also suffered from diabetes. In 2004, Metro Health began collecting health data from students ...
