Latino neighborhoods tend to have less access to fresh fruits and veggies. In Santa Ana, Calif., a high school that serves at-risk youth, offers a first-period gardening class. It started as a campus beautification project but ended in students growing healthy, nutritious food for their community in a unique, sustainable way using fish, called “aquaponics.”
The problem of 'spicy hot Cheetos'
The Academy, created by California philanthropists Susan Samueli and Sandi Jackson, is a unique high school for underserved teens in Santa Ana, Calif. The school opened in 2013 to maximize individual student attention and offers work-based and project-based learning, college readiness, and new technology. More than 80% of its students are Latino. When it comes to students diets, ...
According to a San Antonio Express- News article, local residents can now enjoy several options for staying active through free programming offered by the city's Parks and Recreation Department. Because fitness programming and gym memberships are often expensive, cities like San Antonio, TX are often looking for alternative ways to keep residents active. After participating in classes for a brief time, some program participants, like Gabrielle Gullete, say they have already noticed improvements in their health. “I think more people need to know about what the city offers,” Gullette said. “I had no idea what my options were.” Gullete also added that since joining the free fitness classes, four months prior, she lost 25 pounds. According to the San Antonio ...
Thanks to a partnership between Children and Neighbors Defeat Obesity (CAN DO) Houston, the Houston Parks and Recreation Department (HPARD), and the Houston Independent School District (HISD), students at Briscoe Elementary School in Houston now have new opportunities for the active play they need to ensure health and prevent childhood obesity. Before the collaboration, parents identified a lack of physical activity as a primary health concern; now thanks to an after school busing program, students can attend after-school activities at a nearby park for free.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: In 2005, the 44% Latino city of Houston was named America’s fattest city by Men’s Fitness magazine, prompting the formation of the Mayor’s Wellness Council (MWC) and later the Houston Wellness Association ...
Catawba county is a small county in central North Carolina where Latinos are the largest minority group. Many folks living in the county don't have access to regular nutritious food. One college student has inspired her community to take action to get better food into areas that need it. Kayla Earley, a junior at Lenoir-Rhyne University, is developing a research project to learn more about the specific needs of visitors to Catawba County soup kitchens, with the goal of using her research reduce food insecurity in Catawba County 10 percent by 2016. Earley's work has called attention to food access issues in Catawa County. Catawba County Health Partners, a nonprofit that fosters coalitions to improve health countywide, has used USDA data to identify six “food deserts” in ...
Year after year when it came time for the annual fundraiser at Withers Elementary School in Dallas, students were forced to sell unhealthy products like cookie dough. When Becky Heller became PTA president, she and other parents decided that it was time to stop unhealthy fundraisers. Heller and a team of motivated parents took a “giant leap of faith” and organized a 5K in lieu of the unhealthy products—and not only did they meet their fundraising goal, they far exceeded it.
Inactivity a growing problem Becky Heller, a parent with children at Withers Elementary—a dual-language learning school with an 82.6% Latino student population located in northwest Dallas—knew that childhood obesity and physical inactivity was a growing problem. After learning about the first ...
Rainer Valley is one of Seattle's most diverse neighborhoods. In 2012, residents of this community joined efforts to help make the streets of Seattle more walkable and bikeable by planning for greenways in their neighborhood. Greenways---paths that provide infrastructure to encourage walking and biking in residential neighborhoods---are one way to create healthy streets. Recently, members of the Rainier Valley Greenways Builds Coalition for Safe Healthy Streets (Rainer Valley Greenways) have begun planning and reaching out to neighbors, to hear what they have to say about street improvements. Members of the coalition mapped out significant places in the community like schools and parks, and drafted a Greenways timeline. To view the map, timeline, and other documents related to the ...
Pennsylvania residents will soon have increased opportunities to bike and walk thanks to a law which will make up to $2.4 billion in transportation funds available towards pedestrian and bicycle oriented projects. According to Streetsblog and PreventObesity.net, the bill enacted in November 2013 will: provide at least $2 million towards pedestrian and bicyclist projects annually;
increase the state's multi-modal fund from a total of $33 million to $144 million over the next five years (pedestrian and bicycle projects will be eligible);
allow for the use of transportation funds in lighting pedestrian projects; and
include pedestrian and bicycle facilities as part of the state's comprehensive transportation system. In April 2013, this policy was in development. At the time, a ...
A group of Texas Tech University students wanted to get some hands-on coaching experience. Jeff Key, an instructor at Texas Tech, worked to give the students in-class instruction and an opportunity to coach/teach and do community service at the same time—a unique effort that resulted in the development of after-school fitness and mentoring programming at McWhorter Elementary School in Lubbock, Texas.
Emergence
Awareness: Jeff Key, an instructor and coordinator of community outreach for the Department of Health, Exercise Science, and Sport Sciences at Texas Tech University (TTU), knew that obesity was a problem among the community. He was especially concerned with how it was affecting younger generations. “We were concerned that almost 35% of elementary kids were overweight or ...
Hispanics make up almost half of the total population in Houston and many live in areas that lack easy access to grocery stores and fresh produce. To grow lasting healthy changes in these communities, teamwork is essential. One mom, determined to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to folks in inner-city Houston, teamed up with a food pantry that had been looking for a creative way to distribute fresh fruits and vegetables to families in need. This is the story of a unique partnership that led to students being sent home from school with a bag fresh produce each week to take to their homes in underserved Houston neighborhoods—and ended in kids demanding extra kale smoothies.
EMERGENCE
Awareness/Learn: When Lisa Helfman and her husband, Jonathon, wanted their family to eat healthier, ...
