Some doctors' offices and health clinics across the country have tried a new approach to get at-risk kids, many of which are Latino, to eat healthier foods: providing them with "prescriptions" with which they can buy fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. Two HealthPartners clinics in Minnesota are piloting a new program to see if fresh produce prescriptions would indeed encourage healthier eating in overweight and obese young patients. Participating doctors will issue the prescriptions to at-risk children ages 5 to 12 and encourage them to try some new foods. Area supermarkets accept the prescriptions and track the varieties of produce purchased. The prescriptions are actually just vouchers funded by HealthPartners, rather than formal scripts, but the idea is to ...
CA4Health works in rural and small California counties to reduce chronic disease and illness by helping bring about changes in the community that make it easier for people to make healthier choices in their daily lives. Many of these communities have a high Latino population. In Humboldt County, the local health department partnered with students and staff at Eureka High School to implement Hydration Nation, an effort that increased the access and appeal of fresh drinking water as a healthy alternative to the sugary beverages that are helping fuel the nation’s obesity epidemic. At Eureka High School, there were 11 older-style water fountains available to the 1,200 students and 80 staff members, none of which allowed easy filling of the reusable water bottles which were gaining ...
Equipping farmers' markets to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is one way to encourage low-income families to purchase more healthy fruits and vegetables. In Nashville, TN in late April 2014, The Tennessee Department of Human Services, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service hosted the Farmers’ Market On-Site Application and Approval Event for markets interested in receiving free wireless point-of-sale (POS) devices equipped to accept SNAP benefits. Through this event, eligible participants were also able to receive approval to process SNAP transactions within the day, versus the normal processing time-frame. Last year, SNAP recipients spent an average of $175 million in benefits per month. ...
Latino neighborhoods have one-third as many supermarkets as non-Latino ones, studies show. This can limit food options to what can be found at local corner stores, which aren’t known to carry an abundance of fresh, healthy foods. In the mostly Latino city of Watsonville, Calif., corner stores either didn’t have many healthy options or weren’t encouraging customers to but the few healthy options they did have. One local corner market worked with youth to improve its bottom line while promoting healthy eating in the community. EMERGENCE Awareness: In California’s Santa Cruz County, located on the central pacific coast, the 80% Latino city of Watsonville has disproportionately higher rates of obesity than many other cities. The city’s food environment plays a big role in ...
A study by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Duke University in Durham, NC, found an association between weekly consumption of sports and energy drinks and higher consumption of other sugary drinks, cigarette smoking and use of screen media by teens. Some results: Regular consumers of energy drinks were more likely spend significantly more time playing video games than non energy drink consumers.
Boys who drank energy drinks averaged about four more hours of video game play weekly, while girls who drank energy drinks played about two more hours each week than occasional users.
Regular energy drink users consumed more sugar-sweetened beverages.
Girls who regularly drank energy drinks were more likely to skip breakfast than girls who rarely or never drank ...
As part of a community effort to combat obesity, in May 2014 the Leesburg Farmers Market in Leesburg, Virginia began accepting Supplemental Nutritious Assistance Program (SNAP), dollars for purchases of fresh produce. It's the first farmers' market in the county to accept SNAP benefits. Customers using SNAP at the market also will receive Double Dollars, meaning for every $10 spent at the market, they will get an additional $10 toward their purchase. The Northern Virginia chapter of healthy food resource Buy Fresh Buy Local, sponsored by Inova Health Systems, is contributing $1,500 for that effort and fundraising efforts are ongoing to help sustain the matching program. To get the community to the market, county health officials are arranging transportation to the farmers' ...
Studies have found that Latino kids drink more sugary drinks a day than their White peers, putting them at a higher risk for diet-related diseases, like obesity.The City of Livingston, CA has a Latino population of over 70%, and health activists in the city were looking for a way to reduce sugary drink consumption and promote healthier drinks. In April 2014, the city officially adopted a healthy beverages policy. The healthy beverages policy was introduced to the city by the California Health Collaborative, a program that focuses on promoting wellness through community education The Police Department, Department of Public Works and City Hall employees have begun participating in the program. Healthy beverages choices that are now served at meetings and events include ...
Have you ever shared extra produce from your backyard garden with neighbors and friends? Have you ever been the recipient of your co-worker's plentiful citrus tree? Sharing extra home-grown produce is fun and benefits everyone. A new website is tapping into this phenomenon, connecting hungry strangers with growers eager to get some extra produce off their hands. The site Ripe Near Me aims to connect peeps trying to sell (or just plain give away) their backyard bounty with people nearby. You can search by your favorite fruit, follow someone in your area who’s growing it, and get a notification when it’s ripe. You can even offer to trade some of your own homegrown produce. Launched in Australia, the website is stil in beta and does not have many users yet. You can be a ...
La Semilla Food Center, a healthy food and environment community organization in Las Cruces, New Mexico, is hosting the "Urban Agriculture Kickoff and Vision Meeting" on May 16th, 2014 at 4:30 PM at the Las Cruces City Hall. Learn about urban agriculture, see demonstrations, and taste food samples. Come find out how zoning and planning can support farming and brainstorm the future of agriculture in Las Cruces! Learn more about the ...
