Arlington Heights School District, located outside of Chicago IL, has begun bringing healthier options to their schools. They now offer options like poached chicken slider sandwiches, grilled zucchini chips, toasted chickpeas, and turkey meatball soup. They wish to bring these new options to their district in order to provide a healthy lunch, while giving students fun, appealing foods. Arlington Heights has been working on a trial and error basis, even having their first public tasting this summer to introduce the upcoming new menu items. Not all their healthy options have worked in the past, causing them to stop serving fish last year because students simply were not buying it. This school district is also changing it's overall offerings. By bringing in more fruit and ...
The Farmers & Crafts Market of Las Cruces now accepts nutrition assistance for a number of healthy foods, thanks to La Semilla Food Center, a nonprofit organization that is spearheading the project. With a grant from the USDA specifically aimed to improve low-income communities' access to farmers' markets, La Semilla worked to get electronic benefit transfer (EBT) machines into the market and also improve other markets in the area. La Semilla has also employed a person to be present at an informational booth where the EBT machines and tokens will be kept. "We've got lots of partners that we're working with for this," said Rebecca Wiggins-Reinhard, Farm to School Director with La Semilla. To get EBT accepted in Las Cruces, they had to work with WIC (Women, Infants ...
The town of Telluride, Colorado voted in November 2013 against placing a one cent per ounce tax on sugar
Earlier in the year, the Town Council voted 5-2 to let voters decide if they want to place a tax on sugary drinks sold in Telluride. Sugary drinks would have included regular soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, and packaged sweetened teas and coffees.
The new revenue, roughly estimated between $200,000 and $400,000 annually, would have funded scholarships, physical activity-centered after school programs and gardening programs to educate children on growing fresh vegetables.
This issue was initially proposed by a citizen’s group called the Partnership for Lifelong Active Youth (PLAY). Check out their op-ed in the Telluride Daily Planet to learn more about the soda tax.
In ...
According to the City Project blog, in July 2013, residents from the neighborhoods adjacent to the Northeast Riverfront in Los Angeles attended a forum to help plan improvements along the LA river. Among the things requested by residents were more open space, clean air and waters, multi-use projects, educational programs, more trees, bike lanes, and soccer fields. The workshop was the first in a series of workshops provided through the Northeast Los Angeles (NELA) Riverfront Collaborative, that locals will have the opportunity of attending. Future meetings for the Policy Engagement Schedule include workshops in: Food Policy
Workforce Development & Jobs
Planning & Mobility
Sustainable Economic Development For information visit The City Project or NELA ...
According to this local news report from CBS Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel is teaming up with parents, school administrators, Child Protective Services (CPS), the Chicago police, and the Department of Streets and Sanitation, to make streets safer for children as they walk to school during the Fall semester of 2013. In order to develop safe passage routes, officials are working to create a safety plan, which will feature the new routes to be used at the beginning of the school year. At the end of the 2012-2013 school year forty-nine schools were forced to shut down, due to underperformance, forcing many students to transfer to new schools. As a result, officials are doing all they can make the journey to new schools for children safe and inviting. Close to $8 million will be invested ...
In this Texas Parent Teachers Association (PTA) resolution for school recess, the Texas PTA describes the benefits and importance of allowing elementary school children to participate in recess.
In this resolution, The Texas PTA makes it clear that they support: At least 20 minutes of recess, every day while school is in session;
That children receive both recess and physical education classes;
Policies developed by school districts to ensure that recess includes unstructured play, that playground equipment is safe, and that an adequate adult to student ratio of 1 adult to 30 students be established;
That recess is not withheld from children as a form of disciplinary action. The Texas Parent Teachers Association Website also includes this recess resolution template ...
Latinos living in undeserved areas can benefit greatly from easier access to parks and places of recreation. According to this article from the San Antonio Current, three new park projects will provide Latinos living in historically underserved areas of the city---like the Westside and Southside---with greater access to green space. Funding for these parks will come from the City's 2012-2017 Bond program, which has set aside $87.15 million for parks and recreation open space projects, as well as from the San Antonio River Foundation, the San Antonio River Authority, Bexar County, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Among the three new parks to be built are: Pearsall Park;
Confluence Park; and
Westside Creeks Restoration Project. If all goes as planned, within five years Latinos ...
Many doctors in New York City will now be prescribing more than just medicine. The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program is being brought to New York City for the first time in a pilot program at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx and Harlem Hospital Center in Manhattan. The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program (FVRx) is a nationally-recognized program by Wholesome Wave under which a doctor and nutritionist assess the health and nutritional habits of patients and families at risk for obesity and give patients “prescriptions” to consume more fruits and vegetables. FVRx patients at the two hospitals will then receive Health Bucks, which are coupons from the Human Resources Administration and the Health Department that can be redeemed for fruit and vegetables at all of New ...
The majority of Latinos who live in Green Bay, live downtown. Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture as named downtown Green Bay a food desert, an area that lacks access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. There are many great ways to improve a neighborhood's food access, and the Green Bay community has gotten really creative: they have decided to invest in a community-owned grocery store. The store, New Leaf Market Cooperative, will feature local, healthy and fair-priced food for the community, not only improving access to healthy food but also strengthening the market for local farm and food products and creating new jobs. Everyone is welcome to shop at New Leaf Market, and the store is run by various community members who contribute a small initial investment. ...
