More folks can use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for fresh, healthy food at farmers' markets in Pittsburgh, thanks to Just Harvest, a non-profit advocating for economic justice. The program works by allowing people to swipe their electronic benefits transfer card at the market and receive wooden tokens that can be exchanged with most vendors to buy food. Live in Pittsburgh? Find a farmers' market or farm stand that accepts SNAP near ...
Arlington Heights School District, located outside of Chicago IL, has begun bringing healthier options to their schools. They now offer options like poached chicken slider sandwiches, grilled zucchini chips, toasted chickpeas, and turkey meatball soup. They wish to bring these new options to their district in order to provide a healthy lunch, while giving students fun, appealing foods. Arlington Heights has been working on a trial and error basis, even having their first public tasting this summer to introduce the upcoming new menu items. Not all their healthy options have worked in the past, causing them to stop serving fish last year because students simply were not buying it. This school district is also changing it's overall offerings. By bringing in more fruit and ...
The Farmers & Crafts Market of Las Cruces now accepts nutrition assistance for a number of healthy foods, thanks to La Semilla Food Center, a nonprofit organization that is spearheading the project. With a grant from the USDA specifically aimed to improve low-income communities' access to farmers' markets, La Semilla worked to get electronic benefit transfer (EBT) machines into the market and also improve other markets in the area. La Semilla has also employed a person to be present at an informational booth where the EBT machines and tokens will be kept. "We've got lots of partners that we're working with for this," said Rebecca Wiggins-Reinhard, Farm to School Director with La Semilla. To get EBT accepted in Las Cruces, they had to work with WIC (Women, Infants ...
Do you live near a community garden? Does your neighborhood sell good-quality, low-cost fruits and vegetables? Is there a farmer's market in your neighborhood? If you answered "no" to any of these questions, your neighborhood is ready for some healthy changes.
Check out ChangeLab Solutions' "Eight Steps to Get More Fruits and Vegetables Into Your Neighborhood", available in English and in ...
California certified farmers’ markets and farm stands can help bring fresh fruits and vegetables directly to the communities that need them most. It can be difficult—if not impossible—to find fresh, affordable healthy food in many urban and rural low-income communities. These fact sheets from ChangeLab Solutions explain how state law works to encourage more farmers’ markets, farm stands, and community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, where farmers can sell their produce directly to ...
Many doctors in New York City will now be prescribing more than just medicine. The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program is being brought to New York City for the first time in a pilot program at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx and Harlem Hospital Center in Manhattan. The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program (FVRx) is a nationally-recognized program by Wholesome Wave under which a doctor and nutritionist assess the health and nutritional habits of patients and families at risk for obesity and give patients “prescriptions” to consume more fruits and vegetables. FVRx patients at the two hospitals will then receive Health Bucks, which are coupons from the Human Resources Administration and the Health Department that can be redeemed for fruit and vegetables at all of New ...
The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic has published a toolkit intended to serve as a reference for food policy councils, food advocates, state policymakers, and non-profit entities.This toolkit is composed of nine sections that cover a range of potential topics that a state food policy council may wish to explore--- from food assistance programs to land use and ...
Team Nutrition, through the USDA, provides a guide called Dig In! for those looking to engage 5th and 6th grade students in gardening, and the nutritional and educational experiences that go with it! They provide lessons, handouts, and posters. For teachers they provide a guide that discusses how to feature different items of produce in fun educational lessons that teach food safety, have tasting activities, teach food preparation, and gardening techniques. The resources created by Team Nutrition are made to be fun lessons, that give students hands on experience with new foods and teach them how to create sustainable gardens so that they may use this knowledge throughout their lives. ...
