CSPI urges advocates to demand better from the country's fast food chains by singing their letter to leading fast-food chains. The letter asks that fast food decision-makers to commit to providing children with healthier meal options at their restaurants by reformulating current menu options to reduce the amount of calories, sodium, saturated fat, and sugars, offering more fruit and vegetable options, making the grains whole grain, and removing soda and other sugary drinks from the children's menu. Want to show your support? Click ...
CycloBia is Brownsville's version of Ciclovia--an open streets event--which originated in Colombia. The first CycloBia was held November of 2012. The event was a way of getting people to leave their houses and become active, by riding bikes and walking down a temporarily closed off streets in Brownsville. CycloBia not only gave participants a chance to ride their bikes through downtown Brownsville, but also the opportunity to participate in "reclovias"--free exercise sessions available at four different locations, along the closed off streets. In this blog, Lisa Mitchell-Bennett, a participant of the Brownsville CycloBia, shares the wonderful experience she had while attending Brownsville's first CycloBia. She describes the healthy event as one where "the streets belonged to ...
A town hall meeting is a great way to make your voice heard in local government. Typically open to everybody in the community, attendees get the chance to voice their opinions and ask questions of the public figures, elected officials, and each other. If there’s an issue in your community that needs to be addressed, a town hall meeting is a great place to start. But let’s be honest, getting a bunch of concerned neighbors together in one room can be a challenge. Demanding jobs and busy kids leave little time to meet in a room with folks to discuss food access issues. Knowing all this, a group in Detroit got creative. Fair Food Network’s Strengthening Detroit Voices, a nonprofit dedicated to building a more just and sustainable food system, hosted a Telephone Town Hall on December ...
More than 70,000 East Baton Rouge Parish residents live in “food deserts,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meaning fresh fruits and vegetables are not easy to get. This community is tired of their food options, and local officials say they are intent on addressing the problem. The Food Access Policy Commission, a 13-member citizen panel formed in February of 2013, is dedicated to analyzing the problem and presenting solutions to parish and state authorities by the end of 2013. The commission was born after Together Baton Rouge, a nonprofit made up of about 40 local religious and civic organizations, heard community members talking about the need for more healthy and reasonably priced foods in their neighborhoods. After analyzing the problem in the East ...
When it comes to getting healthier food into your neighborhood, you have to get the word out first. On March 6, the League of Women Voters of Dane County hosted a forum on food desert issues in Dane County.The forum discussed limitations of Madison’s food system and what local government and businesses are doing to address related problems. “Poverty is not unique in Wisconsin,” said Carrie Edgar, department head and community food systems educator for Dane County UW-Extension. Dane County’s Food Share participants more than tripled from 2000 to 2010. Among those suffering from poverty, children outnumber the elderly two to one. Edgar encouraged the community to address the food insecurity by promoting and establishing food access points, such as farmer markets, that are ...
The Promoting Health as Youth Skills In Classrooms And Life Act (S.392) is a federal bill that would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and make health education and physical education core academic subjects in the classroom. It was brought before the 113th Congress on February 27, 2013 and sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico). Read the full text to the bill ...
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 ...
Farmers' markets around the country have tougher rules and regulations than your average supermarket. Many farmers and vendors who sell at farmers' markets have to pay for permits multiple times at year at every location they sell at, regardless of if they are in the same city or not. H.B. 910, sponsored by Texas State Representative Lois Kolkhorst would ensure that the permit fees that could be imposed on farmers and farmers’ market vendors could not exceed $50 per year per county or city. Read news about the bill here! Check on the current status of the bill ...
In November 2012, the city of Richmond, CA voted against measures that would have put a one cent per one ounce business licence fee on sugar-sweetened beverages and use the revenue to fund activities related to reducing childhood obesity. The Richmond soda tax proposal brought a large amount of attention to the idea of taxing sugary drinks. Many public health experts saw this as a silver lining to the defeat in ...
