The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides low-income moms with young children and moms-to-be with nutrition education, health care referrals, and vouchers for food. Latinos make-up 41 percent of WIC participants nationwide. The guidelines for buying food with WIC benefits can be tricky, and that's one of the reasons Andrea Little says she and her classmate at the University of Southern Florida and business partner Hector Angus wanted to open 1Apple Grocery in Plant City, Florida. In Plant City, almost 20% of the population is Latino. Besides helping to bring healthy food access to the community, Little and Angus say they wanted to make it easier for WIC participants to purchase nutritious food that followed federal ...
14% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits recipients are Latino families. Many of these families in the Columbus, Ohio area will soon be able to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables at their local farmers' market, thanks to new funds from the County. The Franklin County commissioners are expected to approve spending $10,000 to help low-income county residents buy goods at local farmers markets. Modeled after a program that began last year at the Downtown Pearl Market, the program will allow people who receive SNAP benefits, to use them at six area farmers markets, including Pearl Market. The program, called Veggie SNAPs, also will provide a matching amount of up to $10 for buying fresh local food with food-stamp benefits. Benefits are loaded onto an ...
Policy solutions aimed at the prevention and management of type II diabetes are often similar to those involved with obesity prevention. This report prepared by the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School provides useful information related policy for both obesity and diabetes prevention. Access the report ...
When families don't live by a full-service grocery store, it can be hard to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, leaving many kids hungry and without proper nutrition. But what if you could grow fresh fruits and vegetables right in your back yard and sell them to a neighbor in need? In Atlanta, some zoning code changes are allowing folks to do just that. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed signed legislation in June 2014 that establishes the city’s first urban gardens and market gardens ordinance to address food deserts. The ordinance, which was approved by the Atlanta City Council on June 2, will help to eliminate food deserts and expand access to healthy and affordable produce by allowing urban gardens and market gardens to operate in residential zoning districts. Prior to the ordinance, ...
The Latino community in Portland, OR, along with the Hacienda Community Development Corporation (HCDC) have exciting plans for a new fruit and veggie venue with cultural roots. The Portland Mercado will combine elements of indoor public markets and farmers’ markets with the bustle and feel of many Latin American open-air markets. The Mercado entrepreneurs will offer a mix of goods and services, including culturally specific prepared and fresh foods and artisan and handcrafted items. The HCDC's reputation as a trusted advocate for the low-income Latino community will help promote the Mercado as a safe, legal, and reliable place to find goods and services. Update: The Portland Mercado is seeking healthy and specialty product vendors for the new market. The group is working ...
Estrella Hernandez grew up in San Antonio, a predominantly Hispanic (63.2%) city with a 28.5% rate of obesity in its population of over 1.3 million people. When she was in middle school she began to take a look around her city and found that there was a big problem with obesity and overweight, especially with kids her age. She knew that there had to be a way to get her classmates and peers to become healthier, while still having fun. Estrella came up with the idea of an interactive mobile app she titled WeWalk, which combined active living, healthy eating, and gaming. As she worked with members of the San Antonio community she began to discover that together as a city they could change the obesity epidemic while having fun through exercise. EMERGENCE Awareness: Sitting in health ...
The Denver Botanic Gardens run a community supported agriculture (CSA) program at their farm in Chatfield. In addition to growing food for their members, in June 2014 they began taking the food off the farm and into the hands of folks who live in Denver area food deserts, low-income areas without a full-service grocery store near by. The farm stand debuted on the first Friday in June near Denver Human Services, in the Sun Valley neighborhood, and will continue to operate there on the first two Fridays of every month through October. The second location is downtown on the 16th Street Mall, where it will operate for the second two Fridays of the month. To make their farm-grown fruits and veggies accessible to everyone, all the stands ...
More programs that double Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at local farmers' markets are coming to communities everywhere. In New York, where almost 20% of residents are Latino, a Double Up Food Bucks program is spreading across the western half of the state. The idea is simple. When a SNAP recipient swipes their card at the farmers' market EBT machine, they are given tokens worth double their dollar amount for folks to use on fresh, healthy foods. Double Up Food Bucks are limited to fruits and vegetables sold by participating farmers at designated farm markets, said Lisa Tucker, co-founder and executive director of the Field & Fork Network and food systems educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Niagara County.
“We’re hoping that ...
Studies found that farmers’ markets allowing SNAP recipients to use part of their benefits to buy fresh produce with Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards increases purchase of these foods. So it follows that if SNAP users could double the amount of benefits they could use at the market, they might buy even more fresh fruits and vegetables. Many farmers' markets across the country are trying these "double-up" programs, and markets in Green Bay are the latest. Called the Double Your Bucks program, Green Bay's version doubles the first $10 people can spend weekly on fresh produce, at each farmers market participating. A handful of markets in the area have had EBT capabilities for over two years, but this is the first time customers using the machines have been able to ...
