Promising Strategies to Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy Food and ...

PolicyLinkPrefaceIn 2005, PolicyLink and The CaliforniaEndowment released the report, HealthyFood, Healthy Communities: Improving Accessand Opportunities through Food Retailing, tohighlight the innovative ways that low-incomecommunities are improving access to healthy,fresh food. The report was extremely popular—we distributed more than 15,000 copies—and itfound receptive audiences across the nation.Advocates told us the report helped them developstrategies for improving access to healthy food intheir communities; researchers cited the report; citygovernment officials made it assigned reading forhealthy food access task forces; state governmentstaff cited it in legislative analyses; and presidentialcandidates referenced it in press releases and policyplatforms. Since the report release, the movementto improve communities’ access to healthy foodhas grown dramatically. More groups have joinedthe effort and started new programs; others havehoned and expanded their existing programs;and policies that were implemented several yearsago have now produced impressive results.What is so exciting and important about these effortsis that they address two huge challenges facingthe nation: obesity and the economic downturn.Obesity rates have been spiraling upward in recentdecades, nearly doubling for adults, and more thantripling for children. Researchers now estimate thatthis generation of children will live sicker and shorterlives than their parents if the country does notsuccessfully reduce obesity rates. This is particularlya problem for low-income children and children ofcolor, who face some of the highest rates of obesity.At the same time, we are in the midst of the worsteconomic downturn since the Great Depression.Expanded access to healthy food in underservedlow-income communities of color can simultaneouslycreate new jobs and improve local economies.PolicyLink and The California Endowment share acommitment to addressing the conditions—fromlocal economic opportunities, to social interactionswith neighbors, to the physical environment, toservices such as local stores where people canbuy healthy food—that affect people’s healthand prosperity. The California Endowment hasinvested significant resources to address healthdisparities throughout the state, and has launchedan ambitious 10-year effort to advance policies andfoster coalitions that promote healthy communities.The California Endowment is also launching theCalifornia FreshWorks Fund, an innovative publicprivatepartnership loan fund created to increaseaccess to healthy food in underserved communities;spur economic development that supports healthycommunities; and inspire innovation in healthy foodretailing. This paper builds on previous collaborationsbetween the PolicyLink Center for Health and Placeand The California Endowment, and our joint reports,Why Place and Race Matter and Reducing HealthDisparities through a Focus on Communities.By Lifting Up What Works ® , this report will helpadvocates, policymakers, community-basedorganizations, residents, and other stakeholdersreplicate and create successful models for ensuringthat all communities have access to healthy foodand the wide range of benefits it brings.Robert K. Ross, MDPresident and CEOThe California EndowmentAngela Glover BlackwellFounder and CEOPolicyLinkHealthy Food, Healthy Communities5