“I like the way this is set up. I like the convenience. When you see pretty fruits and vegetables you just want to come,” — Diana Razo, 50, a long time East Los Angeles resident who lives across the street from the newly transformed market. The Ramirez Meat Market is the second corner store to be renovated to offer healthier foods, with the help of UCLA and USC researchers and community members. This project was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Follow the link to a video highlighting renovations at the first of five new healthy corner stores in Nashville, part of the “So Fresh” campaign.

This article gives an update on Chicago’s fight against food deserts. It covers some of the challenges store owners face, but also how this strategy is usually quicker than opening a full-scale grocery store.

Licensing Laws: A New Tool for Healthy Food

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

Registration Website: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/showReg?udc=1te94bzrxg7l

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.

Call in number: 866.740.1260

Access Code: The access code will be provided once you have registered for the webinar.

Registration Information: Contact info@phlpnet.org

Green for Greens: Finding Public Financing for Healthy Food Retail is a new publication from HCSN co-conveners Public Health Law and Policy. 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.

Diabetes patients in Chicago often live in neighborhoods without nearby supermarkets. The Healthy HotSpot Corner Stores Pilot Program (started in November) is working with more than 20 small suburban stores to increase access to healthy fresh foods. The corner stores initiative is just one way that Chicago is working to combat diabetes. Read more here.

Read an interview on why one brother-sister team in Atlanta opened up a small grocery store in their old hood, along with some of the obstacles they faced along the way.

Lindsay Heights Health Alliance recently received a two-year $100,000 grant from the Healthy Wisconsin Partnership Program to develop the Healthy Corner Store Initiative. Read more about their plans here.

Louisville has been honored for its efforts to combat youth obesity by being awarded the first Childhood Obesity Prevention award at the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington D.C. Read more.