When summer days get hot, what are you grabbing to drink? One local nonprofit in Lane County, Oregon has launched a campaign to encourage youth to reach for water, not sugary drinks. Lane Coalition for Healthy Active Youth (LCHAY), an organization working to reduce childhood obesity in Lane County, launched their Win With Water campaign in July 2014. The campaign features posters and brochures with information about the dangers of excess sugar and encourages youth to pick water instead. “Whether you are a Duck or a Beaver every body wins with water!” says the campaign's slogan. Right now posters are featured at Amazon Pool, and the city of Eugene has contributed Win With Water-branded water bottles to the campaign. LCHAY is ready to distribute posters and ...
Many state and local government have begun tightening-up their food and beverage polices, ensuring that healthy options are in the mix of food and drinks sold on city property. Most recently, the District of Columbia has joined the ranks. D.C. will soon require that at least half of the foods and beverages sold through vending machines and elsewhere on D.C. property meet healthy nutrition standards. The proposal was part of the recently-passed D.C. budget. It sets nutrition standards for the food and drink sold in vending machines, retail establishments, and at meetings and events in D.C. owned and operated buildings and grounds. The standards, modeled on existing federal guidelines, encourage the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-calorie beverages, water and ...
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides low-income moms with young children and moms-to-be with nutrition education, health care referrals, and vouchers for food. Latinos make-up 41 percent of WIC participants nationwide. The guidelines for buying food with WIC benefits can be tricky, and that's one of the reasons Andrea Little says she and her classmate at the University of Southern Florida and business partner Hector Angus wanted to open 1Apple Grocery in Plant City, Florida. In Plant City, almost 20% of the population is Latino. Besides helping to bring healthy food access to the community, Little and Angus say they wanted to make it easier for WIC participants to purchase nutritious food that followed federal ...
14% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits recipients are Latino families. Many of these families in the Columbus, Ohio area will soon be able to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables at their local farmers' market, thanks to new funds from the County. The Franklin County commissioners are expected to approve spending $10,000 to help low-income county residents buy goods at local farmers markets. Modeled after a program that began last year at the Downtown Pearl Market, the program will allow people who receive SNAP benefits, to use them at six area farmers markets, including Pearl Market. The program, called Veggie SNAPs, also will provide a matching amount of up to $10 for buying fresh local food with food-stamp benefits. Benefits are loaded onto an ...
When a large grocery store closed in Southeast Raleigh, the community was left with few places to buy fresh produce. Banding together to brainstorm solutions, the Fertile Ground Food Cooperative was born. Fertile Ground Food Cooperative is a Southeast Raleigh-based multi-stakeholder cooperative that highlights the community’s entrepreneurial spirit, helps create pathways to living-wage jobs, increases access to healthy/affordable food, and fosters collective ownership. Board members gathered information and researched cooperatives during 2012. In early 2013, the founders settled on creating a cooperative in which producers, consumers and workers play equal roles. The co-op will be opening up for membership at the end of July 2014. Membership is $100 and can be paid in ...
Children with a greater number of healthy food outlets near their homes had a reduced likelihood of being overweight or obese, finds an Australian study published in American Journal of Health Promotion According to results from the study, children who had access to at least one healthy food outlet within about half a mile of their home had a 38 percent decreased risk of being overweight or obese compared to those who did not. Read more about the ...
Food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are great ways to help struggling families put food on the table. But what happens when SNAP recipients live miles away from a full-service grocery store, unable to put their benefits to use? In Montana, a state with a fast-growing Latino population, the food bank network is rolling out a new mobile food pantry. The new, refrigerated truck will begin delivering food boxes to people living in areas 50 miles or farther from the nearest grocery store later this summer, said Gayle Gifford, CEO of the Montana Food Bank Network. The truck is painted like an old-fashioned chuck wagon and made possible through $90,000 from Northwest Farm Credit Services and CoBank, Each box delivered on the truck ...
Drink Up is a new national effort powered by Partnership for Healthier America that has engaged millions of people and brought together nearly 50 supporters from the public and private sector, all committed to encouraging people to drink more water more often. Drink Up Philly will be the first city-focused effort. In the next year, The Food Trust, in partnership with the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Get Healthy Philly initiative, the Philadelphia Water Department and other local partners, will increase the availability and marketing of water in Philadelphia corner stores, schools, farmers’ markets, and Night Market events, reaching more than half a million residents with the message that water is a healthy choice. This far-reaching campaign ...
Chicha Limeña, a sugary drink mainly targeted at Hispanics in the Tri state area, has been ordered by the New York State Attorney General to stop making unfounded health claims. Marketers of the non-carbonated fruit drink claimed that the beverage could cure diabetes, cancer, and other diseases. "While soft drinks may market the advantages of their products, they may not make unsubstantiated claims that their products have the potential to prevent or cure serious health problems,” said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a New York Daily News article. The Chicha Limena website now reads: “This product is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease.” According to an article in Medical Daily, one bottle of Chicha Limena accounts for two days’ ...
