DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative: Needs ... - Urban Institute

DC Promise Neighborhoods Initiative: Needs Assessment and Segmentation Analysisthings they need. Because of these issues, residents routinely travel much farther to buy theirgroceries—4.5 miles to Eastern Market or 3.5 miles to the Safeway on Kentucky Avenue. RFK Stadium,2.6 miles away, also has a farmer’s market, which residents state everyone knows about and often uses.Transportation to these locations can be difficult. People who do not own cars take public transit orcarpool with neighbors when they need to buy groceries.There have been efforts to bring fruits and vegetables directly to the neighborhood, but they are verysmall in scale. One participant in the parent of high school students focus group knew of a man throughthe 7 th Day Adventist Church who distributes fresh produce like white sweet potatoes, onions, andpurple cabbage every week near Kenilworth Elementary. Groundworks also recently received a two-yearUSDA grant under the Farm Bill Specialty Crops program to fund their “one yard of garden” proposal todevelop gardening opportunities at Mayfair as well as other nearby sites; current participants are mostlyseniors. Many residents participating in our focus groups expressed interest in developing their owncommunity gardens, especially given the abundance of open land in the area. Community gardenswould likely have to be “above ground” because of concerns about soil contamination.Finding: Families perceive that healthy food is too expensive.Buying healthy food is also often expensive. One parent of a high school student expressed herfrustration with the cost of fruit at her focus group. “My kids love fruit. And it costs SO MUCH. $8 for abag of grapes! It also costs $3 for a box of strawberries—And my kids love [them]. They have to waituntil they go on sale.” In the same focus group, another parent pointed out that, as prices haveincreased, it has become more and more difficult to access SNAP benefits. “They need more EBT centers(food stamps). They closed centers and combined others, so now there is an average of 300 people aday at an EBT center. They cut some buildings out.”Finding: Parents and children need better education about nutrition and food preparation.Even with better access to fresh, healthy food, many residents feel that there would not be manychanges in behavior without more education, especially of young parents. Some people at the residentretreat felt that it would be beneficial to have cooking or home economics classes available at theneighborhood’s recreation centers and/or in the schools. An older resident pointed out that, “Youngparents who do not know how to cook will wind up buying a lot of food from fast food places on thecorners.” Others suggested that it would be good to have more general education about nutrition andhealthy eating in the schools, at WIC offices, or in peer-to-peer programs at community organizations.Physical ActivityIndicator: #/ percent of children who engage in 60 minutes of physical activity per dayFinding: Most DCPNI children are not on track to meet goals for physical activity.The best survey data currently available to assess this indicator are found in the 2007 National Survey ofChildren’s Health, which asks about the number of days that children ages 6–17 engage in vigorousphysical activity at least 20 minutes. While not a perfect match for the Department of Education–designated indicator, it roughly correlates with meeting overall recommendations for physical activity,which includes both moderate and vigorous physical activity.62