Protected intersections may be one way of encouraging more active transportation and keeping bicyclists safe on the road. See academic papers, videos, and pictures to learn more about the different types of protected intersections and their designs at this blog produced by Nick Falbo, Urban Planner and Designer at Alta Planning + Design in Portland, Oregon. Access the blog here: Protected Intersections for ...
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It doesn't have to be a challenge for corner stores to offer healthy items. In fact, many corner stores already sell healthy snacks like fruits, baked chips, and nuts, but they are hard to find and out of view of customers. A corner store in Durham, SC, where over 13% of residents are Latino, has partnered with the Durham County Department of Public Health to make their healthier options more attractive to customers. Express Mart, a corner store in North Durham, hopes to increase access to healthy foods in a neighborhood with few healthy options. When costumers walk into the store, they will find bright labels making the “good for you” items easy to find and a basket of fresh fruit at the register to encourage healthy eating. The team took it a step further by replacing ...
Read MoreFor the first time ever, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than white students enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children, the Associated Press reports. White students are still most populous, but their numbers dipped just below 50% for the first time. Here is the racial/ethnic breakdown of students, according to National Center for Education Statistics: 49.8% White 25% Hispanic 15% Black 5% Asian 5% Other "The shift creates new academic realities, such as the need for more English language instruction, and cultural ones, meaning changes in school lunch menus in the Southwest and elsewhere to include tortillas and other offerings to reflect students’ tastes," according to the Associated ...
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Kids from San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood are learning how to speak up for safe streets in their community. In July 2014, the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center and the Outer Noriega Merchants Association organized an event which urged drivers to "Keep Sunset Slow." The street safety initiative was sponsored with support from a $3,000 grant provided by the Neighborhood Justice Fund, a fund distributed by District Attorney George Gascón’s office, according to a Streetsblog SF blog post. The Fund is aimed at empowering neighborhood residents to take action to improve neighborhood and pedestrian safety. In the Streetsblog post, District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang said: “It’s wonderful to see that the merchants have taken upon their own initiative to really try to ...
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One reason many Latino families across the country don't have healthy foods at home is they lack access to stores that stock fresh items. Getting fresh produce into stores is linked to helping kids eat healthier. Knowing this, CSX, a national supplier of rail-based freight transportation, has teamed up with The Conservation Fund, a non-profit, and announced a program of grants aimed at improving the transportation and distribution of fresh, healthy food to communities in need. Grants will be made available to entities that distribute fresh produce and/or perishable food in the 23 states where CSX operates. The grants can support a range of activities related to transportation such as: -Acquiring refrigerated vehicles for direct delivery to markets; -Financing “veggie ...
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The East Bay Regional Park District, in partnership with the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and the Regional Parks Foundation (RPF), is bringing residents living in the San Francisco Bay area park prescriptions, through the Healthy Parks, Healthy People initiative. According to a July-August 2014 East Bay Regional Park newsletter, the partnership took shape in late 2013, when the groups came together to discuss a way to improve the health of children living in the East Bay area. The goal was to find the "best way to weave nature into the clinical experience," according to the regional park's newsletter. In addition to connecting patients to the outdoors through park prescriptions, the RPF is providing transportation for patients from clinics to parks. The RPF ...
Read MorePromoting work across sectors to solve obesity is a key priority for the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Roundtable on Obesity Solutions, a group that engages leadership from multiple sectors (public health, health care, government, the food industry, education, philanthropy, the nonprofit sector, and academia) to address the obesity crisis. The Roundtable's new video addresses the promise of innovative new collaborations to reverse the obesity epidemic in the United States. Roundtable members discuss the importance of cross-sector work that engages sectors traditionally responsible for health promotion—such as health care providers and public health agencies—and nontraditional partners—such as city planners, members of the media, and business leaders—to work together to improve ...
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Last week, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Aramark food services company launched “Home Plate,” a research study that will seek to enhance the health and well-being of families by teaching parents how to cook healthy meals at home. The Home Plate program will include improving access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and giving people cooking skills to turn that access to healthy foods into healthier diets. Home Plate will operate as part of CHOP’s Healthy Weight program. The cooking sessions will occur at The Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia. If the study proves successful, hospital officials believe it will lay the foundation for a “low-cost, sustainable model that can be replicated in community-based organizations across the country,” ...
Read MoreImmigrant children of any race/ethnicity have less physically active lives compared to U.S.-born white children, according to a new study, Voxxi News reports. The Rice University study noted a similar disparity for U.S. minorities: U.S.-born black children were 1.35 times as likely to have lower levels of physical activity. U.S.-born Hispanic children are 1.23 times as likely. U.S.-born children of unspecified ethnicity are 1.52 times as likely. The study is similar to another study that found that 22.5% of immigrant Hispanic children were physically inactive compared with 9.5 percent of U.S.-born white children. The older study also noted that, compared with native white children, the odds of television watching were 1.5 and 2.3 times higher for native Hispanic and ...
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