“The Food Trust values building relationships with corner store owners as well as their shoppers. If a store owner is healthy, then they can connect shoppers to resources for a healthy lifestyle. At Arias Mini Market, conversations with owner Maria Beltre about her diabetes were coming up frequently. She would share stories about not understanding her medicine because she was using a translation line and her doctors were shifting with every visit.
Using our dietician on staff at The Food Trust and bilingual staff to translate, we were able to connect her to meal plans, a Spanish-speaking doctor, and the confidence to make the changes to her lifestyle. She recently called to report that her A1C level has dropped to 6%, from the 12% it was at when we started supporting her just four months prior.
She is so confident in the lifestyle changes that she has made that she shares them with the community and is excited to begin selling smoothies in her store as a part of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative.”