Leading Soda Companies Pledge to Reduce Beverage Calories by 20 Percent



The three largest soda-makers, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, made big promises at the 10th annual Clinton Global Initiative this week. The country's leading beverage companies have set a goal to reduce beverage calories consumed per person nationally by 20 percent by 2025. According to an article in the New York Times, the companies plan to reach this goal by a multitude of strategies. They plan to expand the presence of low- and no-calorie drinks, as well as drinks sold in smaller portions, and use their promotional skills to educate and encourage consumers to reduce the calories they are drinking. The program will cover company-owned vending machines and coolers in convenience stores, as well as fountain soda dispensers like those found in fast-food ...

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Parking Day Brings Parklets to Cities Across the Nation Including El Paso, TX



Cities all across the US and the globe recently celebrated Parking Day--an initiative that aims to get people to experience what a temporarily transformed public space might look like. During Parking day, which occurs every third Friday in September, communities build temporary parklets (small spaces on streets or sidewalks that resemble parks). Parklets often feature bike racks, green turf, grass, trees, plants, park benches, tables, and sometimes even free games. The idea behind Parking Day is to inspire locals to explore the possibility of developing a more walkable & livable community with more pedestrian friendly streets. According to a blog from Streetsblog USA, this year communities who participated in Parking Day included: Providence, R.I.; Louisville, KY; ...

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Report: SNAP Incentives Led to Increase in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption



A pilot program to encourage Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries to purchase healthier foods led to a 26 percent increase in fruit and vegetable consumption among participants, according to a final evaluation released last week by the Department of Agriculture. Between 2001 and 2013, the Healthy Incentives Pilot refunded SNAP beneficiaries in Massachusetts with 30 cents for every benefit dollar spent on fruits and vegetables. Read the final report summary ...

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Food Hub Has Big Plans to Revitalize Louisville Food Desert



Hoping to strengthen the production and distribution of locally grown food in Louisville, Mayor Greg Fischer granted a 24-acre vacant lot in the West End worth $1.2 million to developers to begin building a "food hub" for Louisville. The new agricultural development will process, store and distribute locally grown produce in an area where healthy food is hard to find, according to an article in the Courier-Journal. Seed Capital Kentucky, the hub's nonprofit developer, is pursuing tax credits to fund a warehouse, commercial kitchen and office space. It is negotiating final details with food and agriculture-related companies, including a juicery, an industrial food processor and a 2-acre demonstration farm. City officials say the new food hub will bring jobs to an area that ...

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Building Bike Lanes For Twelve Year Olds Like Isabella



What would bike lanes look like if they were designed and built with the safety of a twelve year old girl in mind? Would you feel comfortable riding them? These are some of the questions that leaders at  PeopleForBikes a national non-profit committed to making riding safer for everyone, asked themselves as they developed their latest campaign called: Build it for Isabella. One of the main goals that People for Bikes strives for is to build bicycle infrastructure that anyone could use, not just your typical group of bike advocates. The idea of the Build it for Isabella campaign is that if you build it for a  twelve year old girl like Isabella, anyone can use it. That would mean that rather than rely on painted bike lanes and on sharing lanes with drivers, that communities would ...

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City of Birmingham Hopes to Partner with County Transit Authority for Mobile Food Market



In recent months, Birmingham, Alabama has been fostering conversations around affordable, healthy food access. One way other cities get food into underserved areas is through mobile food markets---re-purposed vans or buses that carry fresh fruits and vegetables into neighborhoods that don't have a full service grocery store nearby. Creating a mobile food market was one of several recommendations from a study of the city of Birmingham provided by IBM's $500,000 Smarter Cities Challenge Grant,  and the City wants to try it out. The Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority's (BJCTA) board now will consider an agreement with the City of Birmingham to give a set of decommissioned MAX buses to the program and provide fuel and maintenance. The mobile market concept, presented ...

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Volunteers Add Playground to San Antonio Affordable Housing


marshal playscape

A new KaBOOM! playground has just arrived to Marshall Meadows, an affordable housing community in San Antonio, Texas. With the help of 200 volunteers from Foresters, The Housing Community Services, Inc. and a team from KaBOOM!, kids living in and near Marshall Meadows now have a new place to play. Plans for the project started with a design day in June 2014, according to a news release. As part of the playground design process, children were asked to draw their dream playground. Designers used their drawings as inspiration for the new playscape. The playground is expected to serve more 25,000 children. "A community's well-being starts with a child's well-being," said Tony Garcia, president and CEO, of Foresters. "Playgrounds are important to communities, providing an ...

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California Bill Encourages Healthy Eating and Physical Activity After School



California, often on the forefront of legislation encouraging healthy habits in children, will consider a bill this session that would encourage healthy eating and physical activity in after-school programs. Senate Bill 949 establishes the California Distinguished After School Health (DASH) recognition program. It proposes standards for physical activity, “screen time,” and the serving of fruits and vegetables for after-school programs. After-school programs that meet these proposed requirements will be awarded a special “DASH” certification. Read more details about the bill here. There are more than 4,400 publicly funded after-school programs in California serving more than 1.5 million children, many of which are Latino. UPDATE:  S.B. 949 was signed into ...

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Market and Community Hub First Initiative of New Toledo Institute


grocery store

ProMedica, a non-profit healthcare provider has partnered with Philanthropist Russell Ebeid to address poverty and other social issues in Toledo, Ohio. To accomplish this, Ebeid has generously funded the ProMedica Ebeid Institute for Population Health. In Ohio, more than 1 in 4 children live in food insecure households and in Toledo Public Schools, the number of children eligible for free and reduced breakfast and lunch is nearly 80% with some schools as high as 98%, according to the ProMedica press release. With the approval of Toledo City Council, the first initiative of the Ebeid Institute will be working to establish a full-service market and community hub in central Toledo. They picked this area because of the lack of grocery stores nearby, hoping the market would bring ...

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