You are viewing 9 posts in the category Community Centers
Headhouse Named One of America's Top 50 Farmers Markets by Cooking Light Magazine
Cooking Light Magazine
“[Headhouse Farmers Market] is a very well-managed market with a great balance of truly committed vendors: meats, sustainable fish, fresh produce, coffee. I can just about fully live off that market and just buy toothpaste somewhere else.” —Chef Aimee Olexy, Talula’s Garden, Philadelphia, PA
The New York Times: The Decline of 'Big Soda'
The New York Times
Taped on the glass refrigerator doors were signs warning customers about the calories contained in the products inside. “Did you know it takes 65 minutes of dancing to work off a bottle of soda?” one said. The signs are part of the healthy corner store initiative sponsored by the Food Trust, a local nonprofit that works to promote nutritious food and coordinates closely with the city. (“Choose water!” urged another, handwritten sign.)
Many urban residents do their shopping in corner stores, and the Food Trust certifies stores, helping them find and sell healthier foods.
“We don’t do much with campaigns to decrease soda,” said John Weidman, the organization’s deputy executive director. “These guys have such small profit margins that you have to couch everything in terms of, ‘This will help your bottom line.’ ” In other words, the organization doesn’t urge stores to stop selling soda. Instead, he said, the goal is to nudge customers toward healthier options, like water and low-fat milk. “It’s mostly about getting them to try healthier alternatives,” he said.
10 nonprofits led by The Food Trust are working collectively to make kids healthier
Young Leaders for a Healthier Generation
GSK and The Philadelphia Foundation announced the award of a three-year, $5 million charitable grant to Get HYPE Philly!, a collective of 10 nonprofits headed by The Food Trust. Working together, the nonprofits will focus on enabling Philadelphia teens to eat healthy, exercise and build healthier communities. The grant is from a fund established by GSK in 2011 to benefit young people in the City of Philadelphia, and is administered by The Philadelphia Foundation.
For more information visit: gethypephilly.org
Celebrating Progress, Accelerating Change: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commits $500 million over the next 10 years
Celebrating Progress, Accelerating Change
Helping all children grow up at a healthy weight is an integral part of building a Culture of Health in every community across the United States. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will commit $500 million over the next 10 years to expand efforts to ensure that all children in the United States—no matter who they are or where they live―can grow up at a healthy weight. Together we have been able to put childhood obesity on the map as an urgent, national priority. Now there are signs we’re turning the tides on childhood obesity rates in younger children. These signs of progress are happening in schools and communities across the nation.
Video features President Bill Clinton, former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, former Let's Move Executive Director Sam Kass, Executive Director of The Food Trust Yael Lehmann, and others.
Phillies All-Star shortstop Jimmy Rollins announces support for HYPE-- The Food Trust's youth leadership program
Metro Philly
TIME magazine: childhood obesity rates drop slightly in some cities. What are they doing right?
Finally, a little good news concerning the nation’s rising obesity rates: rates among children in some cities and states are starting to drop.
What’s behind the success? Jim Marks, senior vice president and director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Group says there is a pattern among the cities with the most significant declines. Most are implementing multiple, comprehensive programs that target both schools and communities by upping the availability of healthier foods and encouraging more physical activity and educational opportunities.
That includes tapping into as many different venues where people eat and buy food as possible. For instance, since 1992 Philadelphia has worked with The Food Trust to help corner stores fill their shelves with fresher foods, bring better food to under-served markets, connect schools and farms and require acceptance of food stamps at farmer’s markets.
The Food Trust, Partnership for a Healthier America, Philadelphia Water Dept launch Drink Up Philly campaign
The Food Trust's Karima Rose wins Minority Business Leader Award
Karima Rose, Director of Grants and Operations at The Food Trust received the Minority Business Leader Award from the Philadelphia Business Journal and presenting sponsor Wells Fargo.
Award winners are leaders (corporate or non-profit) of ethnic backgrounds with high levels of responsibility at their companies - such as presidents, vice presidents, CFOs, partners or people in charge of a business unit. Awardees also play a strong leadership role outside their jobs and serve in industry associations or community organizations.
Bill Moyers: How activists helped turn the tide on childhood obesity
FROM BILL MOYERS
Childhood obesity has long been considered one of the nation’s most intractable problems, complicated by issues like race, poverty and a culture that to many seems more concerned with corporate profits than children’s health. About 17 percent of American children are obese; among low-income children, the rate rises to 20 percent. But a recent report shows that the tide may finally be turning, with childhood obesity rates declining by 3 -5 percentage points in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
The reasons for the reversal are still unclear, but it would be hard for anyone familiar with the work of Philadelphia’s Food Trust to discount the impact of that organization and others like it. We called Food Trust Executive Director Yael Lehmann to learn more about the new report and the role of activists in reversing the trend.