New signs highlight an array of fresh produce at the Los Compadres Market and Restaurant. HEAC staff built a relationship with the owner over three years.
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Baldwin Park's residents and "Healthy Teens on the Move" take campaign for healthy food choices to corner stores located near schools The City of Baldwin Park, 20 miles inland from downtown Los Angeles, began as an agricultural region in the 1860s. Today, this suburb of more than 75,000 residents is mostly young (two out of three are under age 35) and Hispanic (four out of five), and finding nutritious, affordable food is a challenge. According to the Retail Food Study by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, for every supermarket or farmers market, Baldwin Park has six corner stores and liquor stores, far exceeding the... -
See VideoYouth Reclaim Their Neighborhood Park, Enlisting The City's Support and Using Environmental Design PrinciplesFor many years, Lauderbach Park was a favorite place for children growing up in the crowded apartment complexes of southwest Chula Vista to play and hang out with friends. But, over the course of a decade, the park had gradually become too dangerous, taken over by gangs and prostitution, drugs and alcohol, litter and graffiti. It lacked restrooms and a functioning water fountain. Transients camped out in the park and children attending the adjacent elementary school learned to simply avoid it.Enter: A group of five high... -
A Chula Vista School District Reinvents the School Cafeteria, Improving Students' Health While Increasing Revenue Chula Vista is the second-largest city in San Diego County, after the city of San Diego itself, its larger and more affluent neighbor to the north. About half of Chula Vista's residents are Latino, a population at disproportionately high risk for obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes. Chula Vista's Sweetwater Union High School District has tackled the obesity problem head-on, through an ambitious combination of changes to its food service program and its physical education curriculum. In 2006, Sweetwater schools...
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The Greenfield Walking Group—Transforming A Park, Transforming A Community Bakersfield mothers Gema Perez and Daliflor Loya met in 2006 during a nutrition class at the Greenfield Family Resource Center. Recognizing that physical activity was as critical to good health as eating right, they banded together to start the Greenfield Walking Group. That fall, two dozen women, many of them Spanish-speaking farm workers, began meeting for a daily walk and aerobic workout in the city's Steirn Park. The park, however, was a hazardous obstacle course, littered with hypodermic needles, broken bottles, aggressive stray dogs, roving gang members...
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Applying Smart Growth Principles to General Plan Update, Kings County Moves Toward a Healthier FutureWhen it comes to high-impact community collaboration, timing can make all the difference. "In 2005, our Community Development Agency was just starting on our first General Update in 14 years," says Greg Gatzka, Kings County Community Development Agency Director, "and the timing coincided with the Public Health Department's efforts to address community health issues relating to the built environment." More than 60% of the population in Kings County is estimated to be overweight or obese. "We know that these high rates are fueled by...
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Obesity Prevention Council "Madera In Motion" Sees Safe Neighborhoods as Key to Community HealthMadera, a diverse city of approximately 57,000, is located 18 miles north of Fresno; with about one-tenth that city's population, Madera prides itself on preserving a small-town feeling. For full-time Crime Prevention Officer Durbin Lloren, personal and institutional relationships are key to achieving public safety goals as part of a broader strategy for improving community health. In partnership with the Madera in Motion Obesity Council and the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP), Officer Lloren is working to...
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Changing The Food Environment: Adding EBT Turns Flea Markets Into Convenient And Affordable Farmers MarketsBoasting low prices and a wide array of new and used merchandise—from clothing, toys, and school supplies to furniture, home appliances, and more—it's no wonder that flea markets are popular, and becoming more so. The Merced Flea & Farmers Market in California's rural Central Valley has seen a sharp increase in attendance since the nation's economic crisis began in fall 2007. On a typical Saturday in spring 2009, the market drew more than 6,000 visitors, up more than 20 percent from two years earlier. And that figure does not...
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Modesto Models An Integrated Approach To Community Health, Including Dynamic Afterschool Programs And A Gardening Project For At-Risk Youth Planting "Seeds For The Future"John Ervin III is a credentialed physical education teacher, but as Director of Community and Student Affairs for the Modesto City School District (MCSD), his efforts to prevent obesity and improve community health extend far beyond the school gymnasium. Ervin is part of a growing movement that champions an integrated approach, involving children in programs from infancy to adulthood, with schools as the lead partner. Ervin believes that "if kids are eating well,...
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A South L.A. elementary school embraces a culture of physical activity and everyone participatesThe numbers are dramatic: Despite limited resources, Norwood Street Elementary School's physical education program succeeded in raising the proportion of its students passing the Fitnessgram test from 36% in 2006-07 to 60% in 2008-09. (Fitnessgram is used by schools to measure three components of health-related physical fitness: aerobic capacity, body composition, and muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility.) In addition, Norwood students competed for the first time in the annual Presidential Physical Fitness test, an age-norm... -
Oakland Schools Become Neighborhood Produce Markets, Expanding Residents' Access to Healthy, Affordable FoodIn 2004, community organizers for the East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC)—with 30 years of experience inspiring young people to be life-long builders of a just and compassionate multi-cultural society—invited residents of Oakland to a focus group at a local park that had fallen prey to crime and vandalism and that parents felt was no longer a safe place for their children to play. At that meeting, a number of mothers said that what their neighborhood needed, in addition to park improvements, was a farmers' market. That... -
Oakland Hospitals See Nutritious Food as Integral to Health Of Patients and Their FamiliesAs Chief of Pediatrics at Highland General Hospital, Alameda County's public hospital in the heart of Oakland, Dr. Robert Savio sees hundreds of young patients who are obese and face a high risk for diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Hospitals are supposed to promote health, he says, "but sitting in the waiting room, kids would see these snack carts come through loaded with candy and Cheetos. My colleagues and I call them 'diabetes carts'!" Recognizing that eating healthier, more nutritious food is critical to children's health,... -
Oakland Schoolyards Initiative Revitalizes Outdoor Play Areas To Improve Children's HealthChronic lack of vigorous physical activity contributes to high rates of obesity and has a detrimental effect on children's health and readiness to learn. Communities across the country are therefore developing strategies to enhance outdoor play areas and expand access to them. Open spaces where children can play tag and hopscotch, soccer and flag football, are in short supply in many urban areas, particularly in low-income communities like San Antonio, a diverse neighborhood of 36,000 residents sandwiched between the 580 and 880 freeways in East...
