MHP (formerly known as Migrant Health Promotion) and Alice Independent School District partner to create a shared use agreement to make school-owned recreational areas—gyms, playgrounds, parks, and walking trails—available to the public after school hours, adding a much-needed physical activity option in a largely Latino population, at high risk of obesity and related health complications.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: Robert De Leon, a former program director at MHP—an organization that has provided leadership in health promotion, program development, and advocacy for migrant farmworkers and their families and other isolated communities since 1983—was increasingly concerned about high obesity rates in South Texas. In 2011, MHP applied for a Texas Health Initiative’s Community ...
Caesar Valdillez loves where he lives—the Southtown neighborhood in San Antonio (63% Latino). He grew up in the neighborhood and even moved back after he finished college, hoping to meet like-minded environmentalists to improve the neighborhood and sustain it for many years to come. But he noticed Southtown lacked the healthy food options it needed to be a truly healthy community. “Our neighborhood does not have any reasonable grocery store in the area, especially with fresh produce and herbs,” he said. He decided to help.
Southtown Lacks Healthy Options
In 2010, on a routine neighborhood walk, Valdillez stumbled upon the South Presa Community Garden. It was largely neglected and overgrown. He was “immediately intrigued,” though, when he saw at least a ...
After years of trying to land a new park, residents of Earlimart, Calif., can now celebrate the success of a shared use agreement and soon-to-be-built 4-acre park. Residents living in the small rural community of Earlimart, Calif., lacked outdoor spaces for the physical activity they needed to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles and weights. The Earlimart School District’s superintendent responded to this need by trying an experiment. She had the custodial staff at one school leave the school gate open. Word got around that the school’s gate had been left open—soon the school’s field was filled with local residents. This experiment ultimately led to a change in the school district’s policy, which allows Tulare county residents from non-affiliated groups to use the school ...
Edison High School students, families and community members partner with school officials to open school’s new lighted track for a regular walking program. EMERGENCE
Awareness: Toward the beginning of her sophomore year, Edison High School student Brianna Reynosa began to notice there had been some changes to her school’s lunch menu.
“It started with the new lunch menu. When I noticed the changes in the menu, I asked [Edison Principal] Mr. [Charles] Munoz about it and he began to tell me about how obesity was a problem in the community, and how he wanted the students at Edison to be healthy,” Brianna said. Before, Brianna hadn’t really stopped to think about the consequences that come with making unhealthy lifestyle choices. She began to think about her ...
Atop a hill in East Los Angeles, Ramirez Meat Market has spent three decades as a neighborhood fixture. However, the market hasn’t been a beacon of health. Celia Ramirez, who has owned the store for the last 10 years, runs it by herself following her husband’s death in an automobile accident. Now, with some community help, Ramirez transformed her meat market from a typical junk-food-filled corner store into a place that where the community can find nutritious food options and embrace a healthier lifestyle.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: East L.A. is an urban community that is 96% Latino and has high rates of obesity-related chronic diseases. Small corner stores and meat markets are abundant in the community, but sell mostly junk food and few fresh fruits and vegetables, and/or poorly ...
Jalapenos, cilantro, garlic—“The Mexican culture cooks a lot of vegetables in meals and everything has to be hot,” said Sandra Gonzales. Sandra and her brother, Rudy Gonzales, made sure to stock those good-for-cooking-spicy-meals vegetables in the Nuevo Leon Meat Market in San Antonio’s predominantly Latino Westside, which Rudy has owned and operated for nearly a decade. But they had no other healthy choices—snacks like apples, bananas, or grapes—in an area that sorely lacks healthy food options. With a little help from the city and a big decision by Sandra and Rudy, the neighborhood that depends on Nuevo Leon for cooking essentials is now able to pick up fresh, healthier snacks.
Food Options at a Meat Market
On San Antonio’s Westside, a predominantly Latino ...
“Tiendita por Vida” is Spanish for “little store for life.” That’s exactly Irma Bajarro's M&I Meat Market in the heart of San Antonio’s Westside is becoming. The Westside of San Antonio is predominantly Latino, with many residents working low-income, long-hour jobs. Eating healthy is not easy here; fast-food joints and small corner stores, which tend to have fewer healthy items than full grocery stores, line the streets and give kids ample choices of sugary drinks and fried snacks, rather than fruits and vegetables. Irma, who owns M&I, did not want to see another generation of diabetes growing up in her neighborhood.
Meat or Junk Food
Two years ago, if you walked into M&I, you’d have had two food options: meat or junk food. Besides the long meat ...
“It’s hard to engage the average youth in something where there is no choice.” That’s what Kymberly Lacrosse, a community organizer for the United Way of Santa Cruz County, Calif., said about the limited healthy food options in Watsonville. A multitude of unhealthy snacks, greasy fast food, and sugary drink options leave little room for other, healthier choices. Lacrosse mentors the youth involved in Jóvenes SANOS, a youth advocacy and leadership group working to prevent and raise awareness about childhood obesity in Watsonville With almost half of children in the city overweight or obese, the youth of Jóvenes SANOS knew they had to help their small city get healthier. They eventually pushed for improved neighborhood food/dining options.
Obesity in Santa Cruz ...
What are you eating for lunch? Snack food may be the quickest—and unhealthiest—choice. In Santa Cruz County, California, a youth advocacy and leadership group called Jóvenes SANOS knew that their neighborhood needed to incorporate more healthy food options into daily life. That means healthy food even at bus stations.
Health in San Cruz County
Latinos comprise about 81% of the 50,000 people who live in Watsonville, Calif., which is situated in Santa Cruz County. Jóvenes SANOS, a youth advocacy group seeking to increase opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity for Watsonville youth through implementing long-term environmental policy and system change, understands that childhood obesity is a problem for Latinos. “49% of Hispanics in this ...
