Corner stores/markets/grocery stores

El Paso Group Teaches Kids to Eat Healthier

tschwantes — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:44:16 -0600

For nearly three decades in the impoverished South El Paso, Texas, neighborhood of Chamizal, the nonprofit community-based organization La Mujer Obrera has been providing educational and job opportunities to immigrant women who once worked in the garment industry. As factories closed and unemployment rose, women mobilized, and today La Mujer Obrera oversees an ambitious economic development initiative spanning two city blocks and employing approximately 60 women.

Buffalo Residents Work to Increase Access to Healthy Food, Exercise

tschwantes — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:41:48 -0600

Despite a struggling economy, residents of Buffalo are mobilizing with the help of activists and researchers to change policy and infrastructure to support community health by improving access to nutritious, affordable food and making it safer to walk and bike in their communities.

HKHC Personal Profile: Samina Raja (Buffalo, NY)

mdessauer — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:14:21 -0600

Samina Raja has been there. She knows. Some speak theoretically about food justice and health. Samina brings personal experience and cultural relevance to the conversation. “When my daughter and I moved to the United States, I was on a limited budget and always thinking about how I was going to provide for us.” A friend connected her to a community garden, which helped, but still she struggled. “I know what it feels like to be a poor person, what it feels like to scrimp. As a parent, I shouldn’t have to think about how many busses I have to take to get to the grocery store.

Active Living By Design Advocacy Resource Guide

vconti — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:40:47 -0500

Watsonville and Pajaro Valley, CA

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:57:51 -0600

The city of Watsonville and the surrounding Pajaro Valley would seem to have an abundance of advantages for healthy eating and active living. In their southern corner of Santa Cruz County, not far from Monterey Bay, acres of fields growing strawberries, lettuce and artichokes punctuate the miles of open space.

Yet these crops and resources often remain tantalizingly out of reach for the area’s 47,000 residents, many of them Latino migrant farm workers with little educational achievement, limited English, low wages and high rates of seasonal unemployment.

Spartanburg County, SC

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:56:53 -0600

Decades of deindustrialization and subsequent job losses have taken a significant toll on the financial health of Spartanburg County, once a booming textile center and transportation hub in northwest South Carolina. The economic downturn has also affected the physical health of Spartanburg residents, 70 percent of whom are obese or overweight. Many suffer from multiple problems associated with their weight.

Grant County, NM

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:53:18 -0600

For all the sweeping natural beauty of Grant County—majestic mountains, fragrant pine forests, high desert grasslands—there is also the triple challenge of poverty, isolation and infrastructure.

The county covers 3,900 square miles, but its population, divided almost evenly between Whites and Hispanics, is less than 30,000. Nearly half of all residents live in small rural communities distant from the county’s four incorporated towns. Thirty-eight areas are designated as colonias because of substandard housing, water and sewage systems and streets.

Phoenix, AZ

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:32:35 -0600

In less than 20 years, tremendous growth has turned Phoenix into the nation’s fifth-largest city. But the expansion of critical infrastructure has not kept pace with its surge in population and land development. The imbalance is particularly acute in older neighborhoods, where there are too few safe and accessible parks, playgrounds, streets, bike paths and public pools for the burgeoning ranks of children.

Milwaukee, WI

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:17:21 -0600

In the late 19th century it was the settlement movement, pioneered by social reformers to alleviate conditions in poor urban areas. It took hold in Milwaukee in 1896, when the city’s first “settlement house” opened its doors to assist newly arrived European immigrants.

Now, in the early 21st century, a similar movement is afoot, and Milwaukee is turning to eight centers that uphold its historic settlement legacy and hoping they will help solve a modern-day ill.

Lake Worth, Greenacres and Palm Springs, FL

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:14:19 -0600

Palm Beach boasts sparkling white beaches, beautiful hotels and mansions of some rich and famous. Drive just a few miles south, and it’s no longer a tourist’s postcard world. The affluence and privilege disappears, to be replaced by the social and health problems of economically compromised communities.

Poverty. Homelessness. Illiteracy. Obesity. They’re all too plentiful within the trio of cities wedged here between the Atlantic Ocean and Florida Turnpike.