Read More Healthy Neighborhoods & Communities Articles



Asheville Makes it Easier for People to Buy and Sell Fresh Produce



Often, usually unintentionally, city ordinances make it difficult for urban farms to grow or sell their produce. Realizing this, cities across the country are refreshing their zoning rules and permits, hoping to bring better fresh food access to all corners of the community. The city of Asheville, NC is one of those cities. New zoning rules put in place by Asheville City Council in September 2013 make it easier to fill vacant space with food. The city will no longer require building permits for temporary structures like hoop houses, greenhouse-like structures that help shield plants from extreme weather. Permitting regulations also were eased for larger, more permanent structures for growing food. The tweaking of these regulations may seem small, but for an urban farmer, it ...

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“Fresh Fridays” Come to South L.A.



Fresh, healthy food is hard to find in the predominantly Black and Latino South Los Angeles community. An unlikely partnership formed in Summer of 2013 between community organizations and a corner liquor store, bringing a fresh fruit and veggie stand to hungry residents. “Fresh Fridays” will be open every Friday afternoon in the 3800 block of South Western Avenue. The produce stand, run by Community Services Unlimited and the Community Coalition, was open for business just a few weeks after the community's last large grocery store closed its doors. The stand sells fruits and vegetables grown by Los Angeles-area farmers. “This effort speaks to the power of what can happen when everybody comes together – neighbors, business owners, local non-profits – to build a better ...

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Rowan County Food Deserts get Fresh Produce from New Mobile Market



Many people in Rowan County, N.C., don’t have access to healthy foods – so Jon Barber, a local food advocate and farmers' market owner, is bringing the fruits and vegetables to them. Mobile Farm Fresh is a mobile farmer’s market, built in a retired city bus, to restore healthy food access. The one-aisle mobile grocery store specializes in fresh, whole foods. Live in the area? See when the mobile market is headed your ...

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Grassroots group works with rural schools to open recreation spaces



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 ...

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Young Latino Starts Garden to Connect Neighbors, Boost Healthy Food



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 ...

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Teamwork Brings Shared Use Agreements and New Park to Earlimart, Calif.



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 ...

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Student Helps Launch a Community Walking Program Using a School Track



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 ...

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Local Meat Market Gets Fresher, Inside and Out



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 ...

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Celebrating Fresh Veggies at Nuevo Leon Meat Market



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 ...

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