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Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Rosalie Aguilar Santos, MS, is Salud America!'s national project coordinator. She is passionate about nutrition, physical activity, and opportunities to engage communities in advocacy actions to promote Latino childhood health.


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Articles by Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Teamwork Brings Shared Use Agreements and New Park to Earlimart, Calif.



Residents living in the small rural community of Earlimart, Calif., lacked outdoor spaces for the physical activity they needed to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles and weights. The Earlimart School District’s superintendent responded to this need by trying an experiment. She had the custodial staff at one school leave the school gate open. Word got around that the school’s gate had been left open—soon the school’s field was filled with local residents. This experiment ultimately led to a change in the school district’s rule, which allows Tulare county residents from non-affiliated groups to use the school yard at Earlimart Middle School. The story does not end here; once residents realized the difference a place to play could make in improving the health of the ...

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Student Helps Launch a Community Walking Program Using a School Track



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 ...

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Local Meat Market Gets Fresher, Inside and Out



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 ...

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Celebrating Fresh Veggies at Nuevo Leon Meat Market



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 ...

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M&I Meat Market: A True “Tiendita Por Vida”


Obesity Care Week healthy food market grocery fresh vegetables

“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 ...

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Energized Youth Work to Add Healthier Dining Choices in Watsonville, Calif.



“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 ...

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California Youth Swap Junk for Health at Bus Stations



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 ...

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Creating Healthier Food Options in Wenatchee, Wash., Schools


Kids at a table in a primary school cafeteria look to camera. (Istock)

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 ...

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Parents Push for for ‘Real Food’ for Kids in Fairfax, Va.



Parent organization Real Food for Kids (RFFK) aims to improve the nutritional quality of food served at the public schools in Fairfax County, Va. These parents want all students to get healthy, fresh food that will fuel their bodies for physical and educational performance. As stated on their website: “We know, just as you do, that when a child is well-fed with nutritious, real food, he/she is healthier, better behaved and better able to succeed in and out of the classroom.” By doing research and educating themselves, they discovered the volume and breadth of processed foods and foods with artificial dyes and additives being served at their schools, even though these foods were allowed by USDA nutrition guidelines for school lunches. The parent group pushed for a new ...

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