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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Bodegas Become Frontlines Against Obesity

May 10, 2012 in News, News & Events

New Hampshire Public Radio, May 10, 2012.

This radio piece features Manchester Healthy Corner Stores, a pilot project organized by the Manchester Department of Public Health in  New Hampshire. The project encourages bodegas to sell healthier foods, and to display these options prominently. A professional grocery consultant offered free advice to participating store owners, as part of the project. One of the challenges so far has been to figure out how to convince customers to buy healthier foods when they are surrounded by so many more unhealthy options.

The Healthy Corner Stores project is just one aspect of the public health department’s bigger plan to make Manchester more livable; it is also working to transform the built environment in a way that encourages people to be more active, adding crosswalks and installing traffic calming measures.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

What Will Make The Food Desert Bloom?

May 1, 2012 in News, News & Events

All Things Considered, National Public Radio. May 1, 2012.

Listen to this story profiling The Food Trust’s healthy corner store work in Philadelphia. The idea of improving access to healthy foods to people living in food deserts has gotten a lot of attention lately. But community food activists understand ”it takes a combination of access, innovation, and education to change peoples’ habits for the better.” The Food Trust has helped bring supermarkets to underserved areas, and is working with hundreds of corner stores to stock and promote healthy choices:

“On several store racks, there are signs that rate products green, yellow, or red, based on how nutritious they are. And there are flashy little cards with recipes for how to use some of the most nutritious ingredients. Each of these meals should feed a family of four and cost about five dollars.”

The story highlights the complexity of changing food habits.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Corner stores to become oases in food deserts?

February 23, 2012 in News

WBEZ. February 23, 2012.

This radio piece discusses a new project to transform Chicago’s corner stores from “holes in the walls, to healthy havens.” It’s all part of an effort to increase access to healthy foods in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods. Corner store owners are getting hundreds of dollars in seed money and refrigeration equipment through the program. One store that signed up for the program is featured, along with the community group that is assisting it.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Neighborhood stores get healthy makeover

September 27, 2011 in News

KVNO News, September 27, 2011. The Douglas County Health Department is working with neighborhood corner stores to bring healthier options to North Omaha, Nebraska. It’s difficult for some residents in the area to access healthy food. The project, partially funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control, is helping make improvements to stores, including new signage and in-store displays. On Thursdays, area stores host healthy food demonstrations and taste tests, to make “the healthy choice the easy choice.” Project managers state that one of the challenges is “breaking habits”and getting people to shift what they buy at corner stores will be a long term project.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Corner Stores Take a Healthy Turn: New Initiative Helps Urban Shops Stock Fruit, Vegetables and Dairy

January 26, 2011 in News

Voice of America, January 26, 2011. This article features one of the 440 corner stores participating in The Food Trust’s healthy corner store program in Philadelphia. Participating store owners receive a $100 bonus for joining the program, refrigeration and display units for produce, and technical assistance. Includes a five-minute radio story.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Improving Student Nutrition Outside the Classroom

January 17, 2011 in News

WRNI, January 17, 2011. This radio story describes a project supported by the Providence Healthy Corner Store Initiative. A storeowner noticed that children purchased unhealthy snacks in the morning before school at her corner store. This bothered her, so she talked to teachers at the nearby school and they started working together and asked for help from the Providence Healthy Corner Store Initiative. The Initiative donated healthy snacks to the store and gave students a raffle ticket for each healthy snack they purchased. Healthy snacks sold well at first, but the storeowner has found it difficult to keep prices on the healthy snacks affordable. The Healthy Corner Store Initiative hopes to create nutritional standards for stores near schools and to help stores make bulk purchases to save money.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Navigating L.A.’s food deserts: solutions from the bottom up

September 6, 2010 in News

Southern California Public Radio, September 6, 2010. This radio clip features a panel discussion about why some neighborhoods in Los Angeles have an abundance of grocery stores while others rely heavily on corner stores. Representatives from Healthy Eating Active Communities (HEAC) describe market makeovers that they have organized in L.A. neighborhoods. They decided to target corner stores because those are the stores that already exist in many neighborhoods. A representative from a community redevelopment agency describes that organization’s efforts to make façade improvements and help stores purchase equipment (refrigerators) for storing perishable goods. Also, a HEAC youth ambassador describes the process of doing a market makeover in her own community.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

The J.U.I.C.E. Project Re-Invents The Corner Store As A Model For Building Stronger Communities

March 6, 2010 in News

Catalyst Radio News, March 6, 2010. This is an audio recording of a lecture by the owners of The Juice Box, a healthy corner store in St. Louis. The lecture, “Re-imagining the Corner Store: A Model for Building Stronger Communities,” describes their vision and the social enterprise business model as a strategy for helping people in the inner city make healthy choices.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Closing the Health Food Gap

May 11, 2009 in News

Public Radio International, May 11, 2009. Radio story (with transcription) about NYC’s Healthy Bodegas Initiative, coordinated by the public health department. Interview with one of the 1,000 bodega owners participating in the program to bring healthier foods into bodegas in NYC low-income neighborhoods.

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Avatar of Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

by Liz Simmons, Community Food Security Coalition

Is Convenient and Healthy Possible?

August 16, 2008 in News

Weekend America, August 16, 2008. A radio piece about the healthy corner store project in Cleveland, describing a promotional event where free samples of healthy food are given away. Piece about corner stores starts at about 36 minutes into the radio show.

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