Latinos make up over 60% of residents in Tulare County, many of them working for little pay on large farms in California’s fertile Central Valley. Some of these families aren’t getting proper nutrition, leading to diet-related conditions, like obesity and diabetes. When the local food bank revamped their nutrition policy to encourage more fresh produce donations, a local health advocate used her hard-earned knowledge and passion to support that policy, and implemented a creative way to get the valley’s extra fruits and veggies into the hands of those who need them.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: In Tulare County in California’s fertile Central Valley, fresh produce grows all over the place. But for many area residents, this healthy produce doesn’t end up on their plates. "Here we ...
What is the best way to get young people to drink more water? That's the question of a new poll on PreventObesity.net. Answers range from removing local and state taxes on water to banning marketing of sugary drinks to kids to installing free water taps and water bottle-filling stations nationwide. Among Latino youths, consumption of sugary drinks—soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit-flavored drinks, and other caloric but non-nutritious beverages—is higher than the overall average, which contributes to increased rates of obesity, diabetes, and other health issues that disproportionately affect Latinos, according to a research review by Salud America!, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation research network on Latino childhood obesity that is based at the Institute for Health Promotion ...
Given that Latinos struggle with higher obesity rates than the general population, the Obesity Action Coalition has released Spanish-language materials to educate Latinos on the impact of weight on health. The coalition also is encouraging people to bring up weight and health with their doctor. To help people start that conversation, the coalition offers the free Your Weight Matters toolkit in English and now Spanish. “To date, thousands of individuals have taken the Your Weight Matters campaign challenge," said Ted Kyle, chairman of the OAC National Board of Directors, in a statement. "The campaign toolkit is an excellent resource to help you prepare to talk to your doctor about your weight. From sample questions to more information on obesity treatments, the toolkit has ...
Given that Latinos struggle with higher obesity rates than the general population, the Obesity Action Coalition has released Spanish-language materials to educate Latinos on the impact of weight on health. The coalition also is encouraging people to bring up weight and health with their doctor. To help people start that conversation, the coalition offers the free Your Weight Matters toolkit in English and now Spanish. “To date, thousands of individuals have taken the Your Weight Matters campaign challenge,” said Ted Kyle, chairman of the OAC National Board of Directors, in a statement. “The campaign toolkit is an excellent resource to help you prepare to talk to your doctor about your weight. From sample questions to more information on obesity treatments, the toolkit has ...
Latino neighborhoods have one-third as many supermarkets as non-Latino ones, studies show. This can limit food options to what can be found at local corner stores, which aren’t known to carry an abundance of fresh, healthy foods. In the mostly Latino city of Watsonville, Calif., corner stores either didn’t have many healthy options or weren’t encouraging customers to but the few healthy options they did have. One local corner market worked with youth to improve its bottom line while promoting healthy eating in the community. EMERGENCE Awareness: In California’s Santa Cruz County, located on the central pacific coast, the 80% Latino city of Watsonville has disproportionately higher rates of obesity than many other cities. The city’s food environment plays a big role in ...
A new obesity management program will use family counseling, text messages and newsletters to control weight and spark healthier eating and physical activity habits in obese/overweight Latino kids, thanks to a five-year $2.9 million federal grant awarded to researchers at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Researchers will develop and test the six-month program among 230 child-parent pairs in three pediatric clinics of the University Health System. Half the child-parent pairs will get in-clinic counseling on how to make healthy changes. The other half will get the same in-clinic counseling—plus phone counseling and culturally tailored text messages and newsletters to reinforce changes suggested through counseling. “We believe kids in the more intensive group will ...
In 2008, Rancho Cucamonga a small community in California with a largely Latino population, established Healthy RC, a city-community partnership aimed at creating a healthy environment for all. With the support of a Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Healthy RC was able to work more specifically on the issue of preventing childhood obesity, by creating opportunities for healthy eating and active living. Some of the community's key accomplishments from 2008-2014 include: establishing one of the nation's top ten Complete Streets policies;
winning national recognition for sustainable community development; and
being named as a #1 city in the Let's Move campaign. Now six-years after creating Healthy RC, the community continues to ...
The mostly Latino southern area of Santa Ana, Calif., had limited places to be active—and not a single park. Desperate for more active spaces to give them more chances to get fit and avoid disease and obesity, residents pushed for and received a new park, Corazones Verdes Park. While park construction remained underway, members of Latino Health Access sought alternative active spaces. That’s when they came up with the idea of creating a Wellness Corridor through downtown Santa Ana. Now partners from across the city are discussing ways to make the community more walkable, and residents of all ages are learning to effectively voice the need for healthy options.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: America Bracho, a Venezuelan-born physician and public health advocate for the Latino community of south ...
New Haven is the second most obese county in Connecticut, with 60 percent of Hispanic adults in New Haven struggling with obesity. Luckily, there are groups that are working to get healthy, nourishing food to those in the area who need it. New Haven Farms (NHF) works to combat both food insecurity and health conditions including diabetes and obesity by providing families with fresh produce and nutrition lessons. The organization currently operates eight small garden sites throughout the city, growing 5,500 pounds of produce feeding 20 families over the winter and 40 over the summer. In collaboration with the City of New Haven, NHF is in the process of acquiring a new farm that will triple its food output, allowing them to grow fresh fruits and vegetables for more families in ...
