302554
Identifying and Promoting Healthy Food Financing Initiatives to Improve Healthy Affordable Food Access in Latino Areas
In lower-income Latino communities, corner stores and fast-food restaurants are widespread, but supermarkets and farmers’ markets, which can offer affordable fresh and healthy options, are scarce. To identify healthy food financing initiatives to address healthy food access specifically among Latinos, Salud America!—a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded national network of researchers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders vested in reducing childhood obesity—conducted extensive research and developed an online platform to promote healthy food environments for Latinos.
Approach:
Salud America! conducted a comprehensive research review to examine the food environment in Latino neighborhoods, and how healthy food financing initiatives were addressing—or could address—issues. Salud America! pilot researchers also worked in Latino communities to test interventions for menu labeling, community gardens, and grocery store tours.
Results:
The research review determined that several healthy food financing initiatives successfully improved Latinos’ access to healthy foods and communities’ economic vitality: tax credits, zoning incentives, and assistance programs to encourage supermarkets and farmers’ markets to locate in underserved areas.
Based on these results, Salud America! developed Growing Healthy Change, an online, GIS-based platform that can help identify Latino communities that are ready to create or already creating local, state, and national changes to develop healthier food environments.
Discussion:
Environmental planning and development efforts should encourage more supermarkets, farmers’ markets or other sources of affordable, healthy food in underserved communities. The Growing Healthy Change platform has proven to help connect, equip, and mobilize individuals and groups to promote healthy food financing initiatives toward healthier food environments for Latinos.
Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health educationChronic disease management and prevention
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Analyze the food environment in underserved Latino communities and the effect of healthy food financing initiatives.
Discuss Salud America!’s efforts to increase national awareness of food access issues and the role of a unique platform to promote community changes for healthy food financing initiatives in underserved Latino communities.
Keyword(s): Latinos, Policy/Policy Development
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have curated information from journals, reports, RSS feeds, and news reports to be used for a dynamic on-line Latino Childhood Obesity advocacy project to promote awareness and policy change. I have interviewed key stakeholders to create a series of case studies on policy changes, which support the prevention of Latino childhood obesity. Additionally, I have collaborated in the design and testing of the functionality for the Salud America! on-line Growing Healthy Changes Platform
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.