Community members belonging to the Great Streets Mountain View group are working towards friendlier streets in Mountain View, CA. To raise community awareness of the initiative and to offer residents the opportunity to identify potential road improvements along California St., Escuela St., and Shoreline St., the group held walking tours on Saturday September 27, 2014. According to Great Streets Mountain View (GSMV), the streets that they hope to bring improvements to are part of a neighborhood that is already densely populated and has high traffic counts (26% of Mountain View's population lives there). Therefore, they make good candidates for lane reduction, improved lighting, street trees, and bike lanes---all important components of Complete Streets. The area also has a ...
Almost 15% of the population in Prince George's County is Latino, many of which live in areas with low access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Groups like the Food Equity Council, a volunteer nonprofit food policy organization, work to improve access to healthy, affordable, sustainable, culturally appropriate and safe food options in the county for individuals of all socioeconomic status. The Food Equity Council held its first Food Equity Forum on Sept. 18, bringing together private farms and businesses, local government agencies, nonprofits and other community stakeholders to look for ways to improve access to healthy food. A mobile food market that accepts SNAP benefits is one part of the solution that is already in action in Prince George's County, but stakeholders want to see ...
Fifty students attending Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, FL will be taking part in an innovative study to learn more about the use of Fitbit fitness trackers to help high school students stay active. Dr. Raquel Hernandez, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Medical School, who works out of the All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL, is the lead researcher of the school-based study, which has been funded by a $100,000 grant from insurer, Florida Blue. "This is very state-of-the-art. It's never been done with kids before, and not in the schools," Janelle Garcia, PhD, the project's program coordinator said in a Tampa Bay Times article. "We really want to meet them where they are and where their interests are, and that's with ...
Hickory, North Carolina has a growing Latino population, at over 11%. Hickory also has many USDA-declared food deserts---low-income areas with no full-service grocery store nearby. The city now boasts plans for a new Walmart Neighborhood Market store that will bring better food access into some Hickory neighborhoods. According to an article in the Hickory Record, the Walmart store manager says he plans to hire around 95 new employees, making this new market not only a source of healthy foods but also a source of employment. Walmart Neighborhood Market stores were designed in 1998 by Walmart to capitalize on areas in need of low-cost groceries and merchandise and a pharmacy, according to information from Walmart. The stores offer produce, meat and dairy products, bakery and deli ...
Miami might soon have a 10-mile world-class linear park thanks to the efforts of various city partners, university students, community members, and a newly formed non-profit organization.
According to a blog post from Friends of the Underline, the organization that's spearheading the initiative, the idea for this linear park first came from the group's founder Meg Daly, who one day realized that land beneath the city's metrorail was underutilized.
“The vision is to connect eight transit stations to one linear park,” said Daly, in the blog.
Originally the proposed linear park, was called the Greenlink, but now the park is being called The Underline. Plans for the new trail include widening the trail to 20-feet, as well as adding lighting, landscaping, and water fountains.
In ...
Vending machines in state buildings are on track to stay healthy in California. The Healthy State Vending Bill (SB 912) passed the full assemply floor on August 19, 2014. The bill, co-sponsored by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA), simply eliminates the January 2015 expiration from current law, which requires minimal nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold in vending machines in state buildings. SB 912 will head to the Governor’s desk for his signature by the end of August. Learn more about SB 912 here. Update: On Friday, September 26, 2014, the Healthy State Vending Bill was signed into law by Governor ...
South Carolina, a state with one of the highest childhood obesity rates, is refocusing the efforts begun in 2005 to get the state back in shape. In late September 2014, South Carolina officials released The South Carolina Obesity Action Plan, which focuses on specific improvements and setting achievable goals. According to a news article in The Slate, all the goals fall into one of four target areas: communities, workplaces, school/childcare, and health care. The plan calls for many specific ways the public and private sectors can work towards a healthier South Carolina, like equipping more farmers' markets with the ability to accept SNAP benefits or encouraging more workplaces to create space for breastfeeding moms. With the launch of the new action plan came a new website, ...
Students at twelve Houston Independent School District (HISD) schools will experience yoga, thanks to support from the Sonima Foundation---a national nonprofit that seeks to improve the health and wellness of primarily undeserved students. According to a KPAC 2 news story, HISD will offer Sonima's yoga curriculum to ten elementary schools, one middle school and one high school thanks to a $360,000 donation from the foundation.
Because recent surveys have found that many of HISD's students are inactive Superintendent Terry Grier, a yoga enthusiast himself, made the decision to bring Sonima's program to several of the district's classrooms.
KPAC 2 reports that the California based Sonima Foundation contacted Grier (who previously worked in San Diego) to see if the district would be ...
In San Antonio, TX, a local food activist and karate instructor is bringing his passion for fresh, healthy foods into unexpected places. Outside the karate studio where Len Trevino teaches in a busy strip center are several scattered 8 x 10-foot landscaping beds, mostly with just one remaining dried up shrub and a thin layer of mulch. Len Trevino plans to plant landscaping beds in front of his karate studio with kale, spinach and other vegetables and wants to encourage his neighbors in this strip center to do the same. "We're going to start with one. We're going to start with this one and grow spinach and kale and peppers and hopefully it will grow and some of my neighbors here will do the same thing," Trevino said in an interview with Texas Public Radio. Trevino is the ...
