Efforts to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables among women and young children receiving food assistance are paying off, according to a study by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. The study is published in Public Health Nutrition. Revisions to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) were implemented in 2009 to offer foods that better reflect dietary recommendations for Americans. Latinos comprise 41 percent of WIC recipients. Rudd Center researchers examined fruit and vegetable purchases made at a New England supermarket chain by households participating in WIC over a two-year period. Fruit and vegetable spending and volume purchased by these households were compared before and after the WIC ...
CA4Health works in rural and small California counties to reduce chronic disease and illness by helping bring about changes in the community that make it easier for people to make healthier choices in their daily lives. Many of these communities have a high Latino population. In Humboldt County, the local health department partnered with students and staff at Eureka High School to implement Hydration Nation, an effort that increased the access and appeal of fresh drinking water as a healthy alternative to the sugary beverages that are helping fuel the nation’s obesity epidemic. At Eureka High School, there were 11 older-style water fountains available to the 1,200 students and 80 staff members, none of which allowed easy filling of the reusable water bottles which were gaining ...
Equipping farmers' markets to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is one way to encourage low-income families to purchase more healthy fruits and vegetables. In Nashville, TN in late April 2014, The Tennessee Department of Human Services, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service hosted the Farmers’ Market On-Site Application and Approval Event for markets interested in receiving free wireless point-of-sale (POS) devices equipped to accept SNAP benefits. Through this event, eligible participants were also able to receive approval to process SNAP transactions within the day, versus the normal processing time-frame. Last year, SNAP recipients spent an average of $175 million in benefits per month. ...
Jeff Anderson, a parent at Wolftrap Elementary School in Fairfax, Va., wanted his daughter to bike to school. Unfortunately, the school had no bike racks. He went to the principal and the school installed bike racks. Anderson then joined other parents, school officials, and community partners to improve one of the school district’s transportation policies. Now parents from all over the community, including those with large Latino populations, have created safe routes for kids to walk and bike to district schools.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: In Spring 2008, Jeff Anderson noticed that there were no bike racks at Wolftrap Elementary School in Vienna, Va., a city with a 12% Latino population. An avid bicyclist, Anderson wanted his then-first-grade daughter to learn biking’s sense of ...
As part of a community effort to combat obesity, in May 2014 the Leesburg Farmers Market in Leesburg, Virginia began accepting Supplemental Nutritious Assistance Program (SNAP), dollars for purchases of fresh produce. It's the first farmers' market in the county to accept SNAP benefits. Customers using SNAP at the market also will receive Double Dollars, meaning for every $10 spent at the market, they will get an additional $10 toward their purchase. The Northern Virginia chapter of healthy food resource Buy Fresh Buy Local, sponsored by Inova Health Systems, is contributing $1,500 for that effort and fundraising efforts are ongoing to help sustain the matching program. To get the community to the market, county health officials are arranging transportation to the farmers' ...
Thanks to recent funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Carol M. White Grant, students in grades K-12th from 67 communities across 32 different states will benefit from new and improved physical activity and nutrition programming. This year, over $33 million was awarded to schools and community organizations across the US in efforts to help students meet state standards in physical education. In order to be considered for the award, grantees must provide instruction on healthy eating habits and physical fitness activities. In addition, funded organizations must provide students with one or more of the following: instruction on how to assess physical health;
motor skills to enhance students' physical, mental, social and emotional well-being;
information on how to ...
A group of Latina women in the park poor city of Santa Ana, Calif., were desperate to have a safe place for their children to play. One mom, Irma Rivera, saw a child almost get hit by a car while playing in an empty parking lot, and she vowed to do something about the lack of safe active spaces. She and other moms went to non-profit group Latino Health Access (LHA) for support and found that the group was willing to champion the cause. Through teamwork, determination and perseverance, LHA and the moms managed to get land and funding to build the area’s first-ever public park and community center for Latinos in south Santa Ana.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: Latinos in Santa Ana, Calif., struggle with poverty, language and cultural barriers, obesity, and disease—despite being part of Orange ...
Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group in Washington State. Because Latino kids tend to drink more sugary drinks than their White peers, healthy beverage policies have the potential to impact Latino kids’ health in big ways. In Washington, community partners are teaming-up with schools and lawmakers to come up with ways to encourage kids to quench their thirst with water, not sugar. EMERGENCE
Awareness/Learn: Childhood obesity is a problem in the state of Washington, which is 11% Latino. In 2012, 25% of Washington children ages 2-4 who received benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC; Latinos comprise about 41% of WIC participants) were overweight or obese, according to the state’s Department of Health. About 23% ...
Latinos and other people of color are also exposed to 38% more polluted air than whites, according to a University of Minnesota study, the Minnesota Post reports. The study, "National patterns in environmental injustice and inequality: Outdoor NO2 air pollution in the United States,” found that race matters more than income when it comes to exposure to outdoor nitrogen dioxide, which comes from vehicle exhaust and power plants. How much does race matter? Comparing even high-income Hispanics to low-income whites, nitrogen dioxide concentrations were still higher among high-income Hispanics, researchers found. “We were quite surprised to find such a large disparity between whites and nonwhites related to air pollution,” said Julian Marshall, the study leader, to the ...
