On June 19, 2012, the City Council approved the General Plan and Zoning Code text amendment to change the City of Santa Rosa’s grocery store policies and regulations. The amendment increases access to fresh food by allowing more small grocery stores throughout the City’s commercial districts. For neighborhood corner stores, the amendment helps to improve the exterior of the store, helps them become become a Women, Infants & Children (WIC) nutrition program vendor, apply for accreditation to accept CalFresh (formerly food stamps) from customers, have healthy materials at the checkout, and a new produce display. The hope is that this measure will begin to address food deserts in the Santa Rosa area, where many Hispanic families reside. The City Council hopes to continue to ...
Health advocates and medical professionals are getting together and thinking outside the box about ways to reduce childhood obesity. Nonprofits, like Wholesome Wave and DC Greens, which runs several food access and urban agriculture projects in our nation’s capital, are connecting physicians who are already dedicated to preventative wellness and nutrition, like those at Unity Health Clinic (Unity) in Washington, D.C., to fresh produce. Physicians, like Dr. Jessica Wallace at Unity, are writing prescriptions for locally grown fruits and vegetables that their low-income patients can then take to five D.C. farmers’ markets, Columbia Heights Community Marketplace, Mount Pleasant, 14th and U St., Bloomingdale, and Glover Park-Burleith. “We know nationwide that poor minority communities ...
In late January 2013, Texas State Representative Richard Peña Raymond (D- Laredo) introduced H.B. 751 that would prohibit the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages, cookies, potato chips, and candy with SNAP benefits. The bill died in committee during the summer ...
The Eco Garden is a community-supported agriculture operation run by neighborhood youth for low-income families. It’s an agricultural oasis in a Cincinnati neighborhood better known for its crime than its carrots. Angela Stanbery-Ebner and her husband Luke got involved the educational programs offered at the Eco Garden in 2004, fresh out of art school at the University of Cincinnati. Six years later, when the nonprofit managing the garden folded, the couple took over, rolling it into their own nonprofit called Permaganic. Out went the emails, an online petition, and calls to the city council in an effort to save one of the most vibrant corners of a rough-around-the-edges neighborhood. Unfortunately for the Eco Garden, it doesn’t own the land on which it sits, the city does. This ...
In East Baltimore, just hopping into a car and driving to pick up apples from the grocery store is not that easy. Many residents in the area don't have cars, and grocery stores are not within walking distance. These types of areas are called food deserts, leaving residents little food choices, especially when it comes to healthy foods. One local supermarket is hoping to help. "They define food deserts by the distance that people have to walk to get to the supermarket and that distance could be as short as half a mile but they factor in poverty levels and vehicle ownership which is low in many neighborhoods in Baltimore." Santoni's Super Market Owner Rob Santoni, Jr. says. Santoni says the answer is not putting a market on every corner, but making it easier to get to the ones you have. On ...
Unhealthy drinks are the source of many extra calories in kids' diets, especially among Latino children. Unfortunately sodas and other sugary drinks are easy to find in almost every community---even in hospitals! Let's be real: hospitals and sugary drinks just don't mix! In order to encourage patients and their families to make healthy beverage options, Indiana University Heath has begun removing all sugary drinks from cafeterias, vending machines and gift shops. Starting with their downtown Indianapolis and Fishers hospitals, the hospital system plans to eventually move sugary drinks out of its about a dozen other hospitals around the state. This sort of internal policy helps patients and families make healthier choices in a place that should serve as a role model for healthy ...
