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by The Food Trust

Introducing the Healthy Food Access Portal, the nation’s first website dedicated to improving and promoting healthy food retail

May 14, 2013 in News, News & Events, Resources

Dear Partner,

The Food Trust and our partners PolicyLink and The Reinvestment Fund invite you to visit the new Healthy Food Access Portal!

The new portal connects community leaders, healthy food retailers, policymakers and advocates to an extensive array of resources and strategies to improve and increase access to healthy food retail (including supermarkets, corner stores, farmers’ markets and mobile produce trucks) in underserved communities. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the three organizations created the nation’s first comprehensive website and learning community designed to promote healthy food retail efforts in regions across the country.

There will also be an accompanying introductory webinar, Knowing the Basics: Food Access 101, next week.  The webinar will discuss the problem of healthy food access and the innovative solutions being developed to address the issue. Designed as an introduction to the field of healthy food access, the webinar will also feature a discussion on how to make the case for healthy food retail solutions in local communities.

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Avatar of The Food Trust

by The Food Trust

Philadelphia’s Healthy Corner Store Initiative: 2010-2012 Report

April 24, 2013 in News & Events, Reports, Resources

The Food Trust, a nationally recognized nonprofit, has developed the Philadelphia Healthy Corner Store Network, a citywide network of 600-plus corner stores committed to improving healthy food access in underserved communities.  The Philadelphia Healthy Corner Store Network is part of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, which works in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) and their Get Healthy Philly initiative.  Each corner store in the network added a minimum of four new products with at least two healthy products in at least two food categories including: fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean meats and whole grains.  Through the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, store in the network have received marketing materials, training and, in some cases, equipment to transform the businesses into health-promoting food retailers.

Access the full report here.

 

 

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Avatar of The Food Trust

by The Food Trust

Health on the Shelf: A Guide to Healthy Small Food Retailer Certification Programs

April 8, 2013 in Featured Articles, Resources, Tools

In most communities, convenience stores are a common part of the retail landscape – and in many areas, both urban and rural, these stores are the only nearby places to buy food.

By establishing a healthy small food retailer program, government agencies and community-based organizations can support and give incentives to food retailers (including corner stores, bodegas, and rural markets) that are willing to sell healthy foods. Programs offer a range of materials and services to stores, from refrigeration equipment to technical assistance to vouchers for free fruits and vegetables.

This toolkit describes how to create a strong healthy small food retailer certification program that requires participating stores to increase the variety of healthy foods they sell, reduce the offerings of unhealthy foods, and proactively market healthy options with help from a sponsoring agency or organization. It provides step-by-step instructions for developing a certification program, with ideas and examples from existing programs.

A healthy small food retailer program can also be a great first step toward policy strategies, such as enacting a local licensing law requiring store owners to stock healthier foods, or it can provide support for communities that have already implemented a healthy food retailer licensing ordinance. ChangeLab Solutions has developed a Model Licensing Ordinance for Healthy Food Retailers, along with an accompanying guide that describes how the ordinance works and provides tips on how to implement it successfully in your community.

See full guide here: Health on the Shelf: A Guide to Healthy Small Food Retailer Certification Programs

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Licensing & Zoning: Tools for Public Health

July 23, 2012 in Resources, Tools

ChangeLab Solutions, 2012.

Learn how licensing and zoning laws can help promote public health and how to choose the best strategy to meet the goals for your community. Also, learn the difference between licensing and zoning laws. This guide explains how regulations can be shaped to accomplish goals such as limiting the location or density of tobacco retailers or liquor stores, creating “healthy food zones” near schools, increasing the availability of healthy foods, and requiring acceptance of federal food assistance. Many of the licensing and zoning tools described might be helpful for people working on healthy corner store projects.

Download the full pdf here: Licensing & Zoning-Tools for Public Health.


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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Building Relationships with Regional Grocers

June 25, 2012 in Resources

Download and watch this webinar (organized by Countryside Conservancy) about building relationships with regional grocers. Terry Romp, the buyer for Heinen’s Fine Foods, a  local chain of 17 grocers in northeast Ohio, presents this webinar. Romp has developed the local purchasing  program at the store and has nurtured relationships with local and regional  growers. A fourth generation produce marketer, Romp discusses best  practices for growers who want to sell to regional grocers, along with  information about packaging requirements, billing, volume, and delivery to help  aid local growers who want to sell their products to grocery stores. This information might be useful for those interested in the way local chains make produce purchasing decisions.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Putting Business to Work for Health: Incentive Policies for the Private Sector

June 20, 2012 in Reports, Resources

Change Lab Solutions (formerly Public Health Law & Policy), 2012.

“Every day, business owners and real estate developers make decisions that have tremendous impact on our health – where homes are built, where businesses are located, and what kinds of products and services are available. Local government incentives can motivate them to make choices that promote public health.

Developed by ChangeLab Solutions, formerly Public Health Law & Policy (PHLP), this guide looks at how local government incentives can help improve community health. It explains a variety of different types of incentives that promote access to healthy food and physical activity space, and outlines the steps involved in developing and carrying out these policies and programs.”

The report includes a section titled “Expanding Access to Healthy Food Through Incentives,” likely to be useful for those working on healthy corner store projects. Incentives described include tax relief, grants, zoning incentives, waivers, density bonuses, and more.

Download the pdf here.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center

June 20, 2012 in Resources, Tools

Wallace Center at Winrock International.

The Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center has many resources for people working on healthy food access projects. The Center provides grants and technical assistance to “support enterprise development and business-based approaches to getting more healthy food into communities with limited access.” It focuses on solutions that create jobs, provide economic incentives to farmers, and that can become self-sustaining. The Center–an outcome of the 2008 Farm Bill–is funded by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and supports 30 awards totaling over $885,000. The Center’s website includes information about its grantees.

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Avatar of Laurel MacMillan, Community Food Security Coalition

by Laurel MacMillan, Community Food Security Coalition

Thinking outside the Big Box: Strategies for Healthy Food Retail

February 7, 2012 in Reports

Slides from a presentation at the Community Food Security Coalition Conference, held  November 6, 2011 in Oakland, California, on various strategies used for increasing healthy food retail in neighborhoods that do not include big box stores. Presenters included: Brahm Ahmadi, People’s Community Market, Heather Wooten, ChangeLab Solutions, and Sabrina Wu, HOPE Collaborative.

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Avatar of Laurel MacMillan, Community Food Security Coalition

by Laurel MacMillan, Community Food Security Coalition

HCSN March 13, 2012 Webinar. Licensing Laws: A New Tool for Healthy Food

February 7, 2012 in Events, Reports

Licensing Laws: A New Tool for Healthy Food

Date & Time: Tuesday, March 13th at 10 a.m. PST

Download Webinar Summary Here

Watch a recording of the Webinar here.

What would it take to get all food retailers in your community to carry fresh produce and other healthy foods?  One promising way: a local licensing law.

Requiring people to have a license in order to work in a particular field or business is nothing new. But local policymakers are now starting to look at licensing programs as an opportunity to make healthy foods more accessible. A licensing law could require all store owners selling food to agree to specific conditions such as stocking a certain amount of healthy foods, accepting SNAP or WIC benefits, or restricting the amount of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks made available in the store.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how a licensing law can help bring healthy food to neighborhoods that need it most and hear a firsthand account of an innovative healthy food licensing law in Minneapolis from a key player involved in the program. We’ll discuss how to use incentives and outreach to get buy-in from store owners, and we’ll talk about the policy and political issues involved in implementing this type of ordinance.

 

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Avatar of Laurel MacMillan, Community Food Security Coalition

by Laurel MacMillan, Community Food Security Coalition

Green for Greens: Finding Public Financing for Healthy Food Retail

February 3, 2012 in Featured Articles, Reports, Tools

January, 2012

Green for Greens: Finding Public Financing for Healthy Food Retail is a new publication from HCSN co-conveners ChangeLab Solutions. Bringing healthy food to “food deserts” requires tenacity, ingenuity, and a significant investment of capital. The good news is that there’s a substantial amount of public financing available for projects that make healthy food more available to low-income people. Federal, state, and local governments offer a range of funding programs that support economic development in these communities.

This guide provides a general overview of economic development and ideas for how to approach economic development agencies with healthy food retail proposals. It also provides a comprehensive overview of local, state, and federal economic development programs that have been or could be used for healthy food retail projects.

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