The foods and beverages children and teens consume at home have a significant impact on the overall quality of their diet. To ensure that all families can stock their households with affordable nutritious foods, communities—especially underserved communities—frequently need to consider efforts and incentives to attract new food sources, such as supermarkets and farmers’ markets. Below you will find resources to help inform program and policy decisions to increase Americans’ access to healthy foods.
Policy Briefs & Highlights
Research Briefs & Highlights
Case Studies
Guides
Reports
Tools & Toolkits
Web Sites
Policy Briefs & Highlights
Child Nutrition Program: Federal Options and Opportunities
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity released this position paper to highlight the federal options and opportunities available within Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act that are being considered in 2009-2010.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/35
Stumped at the Supermarket: Making Sense of Nutrition Rating Systems
The National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) commissioned a paper on front-of package nutrition rating systems. The paper describes the many front-of-package nutrition rating systems and grocery shelf rating systems, as well as challenges with multiple systems and federal regulatory issues.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/128
Research Briefs & Highlights
Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes and Public Health
This brief, a collaborative between Bridging the Gap and Healthy Eating Research, provides an overview of the current research on the health impacts of SSB consumption, how food and beverage prices affect consumption and related weight outcomes, and the potential impact of both large and small SSB taxes.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/6
Bringing Healthy Foods Home: Examining Inequalities in Access to Food Stores
The foods and beverages children and teens consume at home account for the majority of their total energy intake and have a great influence on overall dietary quality. Inequalities in access to stores that stock healthy foods may contribute to disparities in obesity rates. Understanding the possible connections among access to healthy food, what families prepare and eat at home, and obesity can point toward potential environmental and policy solutions.
http://www.healthyeatingresearch.org/content/view/56/114/
Restaurant Realities: Inequalities in Access to Healthy Restaurant Choices
The alarming rates of obesity among adults and children and the increase in restaurant dining call for an examination of the nutritional value of foods served in restaurants. This research brief examines studies of possible connections among restaurant availability, eating out, diet quality and obesity. http://www.healthyeatingresearch.org/content/view/55/114/
Associations between Access to Food Stores and Adolescent BMI: Research Highlight
This highlight presents the findings from a study conducted by Lisa M. Powell, et al. The study examined the link between neighborhood food store availability (such as chain supermarkets, non-chain supermarkets, convenience stores and other grocery stores), and adolescents' body mass index (BMI), overweight prevalence and demographic variables.
http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/Research%20Highlight%2030[8].pdf
Access to Affordable, Nutritious Food Is Limited In “Food Deserts”
Some neighborhoods in the U.S., particularly low-income ones, have been dubbed “food deserts” because residents do not live near supermarkets or other food retailers that carry affordable and nutritious food. Low-income residents of these neighborhoods and those who lack transportation rely more on smaller neighborhood stores that may not carry healthy foods or offer them only at higher prices. A lack of healthy options could lead to poor diets and diet-related conditions such as obesity or diabetes. If low-income households in food deserts can only purchase food at higher prices, they may be more prone to food insecurity—not having enough food for active, healthy living. This article was published in Amber Waves a USDA publication.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/March10/Features/FoodDeserts.htm
Case Studies:
Lessons from the Field: Promoting Healthy Eating in Communities
Includes stories from the field that highlight the work, accomplishments and lessons learned from five community partnerships across the country: Louisville, KY; Portland, OR; Santa Ana, CA; Somerville, MA; and Upper Valley, NH/VT. The Healthy Eating by Design 18-month pilot projects were funded in June 2005 to identify and implement promising healthy eating strategies for children in low-income communities.
http://www.activelivingbydesign.org/sites/default/files/HEbD_Lessons_from_communities_FINAL2.pdf
Healthy Food Retailing
A toolkit from PolicyLink that addresses how to strategies behind developing new grocery stores, improving quality and selection of food in existing smaller stores, and starting and sustaining farmers' markets.
http://www.policylink.org/site/c.lkIXLbMNJrE/b.5137405/k.6042/Healthy_Food_Retailing.htm
West Fresno Food Maxx
Depicts how residents successfully advocated to bring a supermarket to their community.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/7
Reaching the Heights
Describes how a farmers’ market has incorporated WIC, food stamp and senior nutrition programs, as well as other health promoting initiatives through the market.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/9
Market Creek Plaza
Describes a unique venture that ties asset-building and skill-building to a collaborative community project to rebuild a neighborhood.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/10
Harlem’s Pathmark Supermarket
Describes the challenges and success community organizations faced in bringing a supermarket to their community.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/12
Burlington Downtown Supermarket
Highlights how city officials decided to be active players in developing a downtown, locally owned grocery store to serve the needs of city residents.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/13
Promoting Healthy Public Policy through CBPR
Addressing food insecurity in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point
Describes a partnership among community based organization, businesses, and city government to improve the quality of foods available in the community.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/8
Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice
Describes an initiative designed to build on local assets to promote community health through multisectoral collaboration.
http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/webfm_send/11
Guides:
Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities: Healthy Eating Resource Guide
This annotated resource guide provides a listing of relevant programs, organizations, tools and presentations intended to support healthy eating via community design.
http://activelivingbydesign.org/events-resources/resources/healthy-kids-healthy-communities-healthy-eating-resource-guide
Improving Access to Healthy Foods: A Guide for Policy-makers
This guide explores how state and local officials can facilitate healthy eating by adopting policies that help communities improve access to affordable, healthy foods for all residents. In particular, it highlights five strategies that have a significant impact on the availability of healthy foods, such as policies related to land use, transportation, comprehensive planning, and community and economic development. It also outlines steps that policy-makers are taking in schools and government institutions across the country to help increase access to nutritious food options.
http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/accesshealthyfoodslhc2007.pdf
Mayors’ Guide to Fighting Childhood Obesity
The United States Conference of Mayors developed a guide to educate mayors about specific policies they can adopt to address childhood obesity in underserved populations. The guide offers actions mayors can take to address childhood obesity and promote healthy eating/active living in their communities and provides local examples of such policies. It also contains a large resource section with information on funding opportunities, online resources, and other pertinent items of interest to mayors and their staff.
http://usmayors.org/chhs/healthycities/
Grocery Store Attraction Strategies: A Resource Guide for Community Activists and Local Governments
This guide is a part of broader initiatives by PolicyLink and Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). The two organizations joined together to organize a meeting held on November 1, 2007, in San Francisco, California, to discuss key challenges and potential solutions for attracting more grocery stores to low-income communities. This report provides nuts and bolts resources to help communities organize a coordinated strategy for grocery store attraction.
http://www.policylink.org/documents/groceryattraction_final.pdf
Reports:
Shaping a Healthier Generation: Successful State Strategies to Prevent Childhood Obesity
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices released this report that examines what states are currently doing to prevent obesity and encourage children to eat healthier and be more active in various settings including early childhood care and education, communities and health care settings. A justification of these settings is included as well as short chapters examining current state efforts in each.
www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0909HEALTHIERGENERATION.PDF
Healthy Food For All: Building Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems in Detroit and Oakland
This new report by PolicyLink, the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University, and the Fair Food Network, shows clearly that our food system - from farm to table to landfill - is broken, unhealthy, unsustainable, and unjust.
http://www.policylink.org/atf/cf/%7B97C6D565-BB43-406D-A6D5-ECA3BBF35AF0%7D/Healthy%20Food%20For%20All-8-19-09-FINAL.pdf
Recommended Community Strategies and Measurements to Prevent Obesity in the United States
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, released by the Centers for Disease Control, published this study which is a set of comprehensive recommendations to promote healthy eating and active living and reduce the prevalence of obesity in the United States. The report contains 24 recommended obesity prevention strategies focusing on environmental and policy level change initiatives that can be implemented by local governments and school districts. The strategies address promoting the availability of healthy food and beverages, encouraging healthy food choice, breastfeeding and physical activity. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5807a1.htm
To assist local governments, states, and policy makers implement the CDC recommended obesity prevention strategies and report on the associated measurements a detailed Implementation and Measurement Guide was developed. The guide includes measurement data protocols, a listing of useful resources, and examples of communities that successfully implemented each obesity prevention strategy. The Implementation and Measurement Guide is available at: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/downloads/community_strategies_guide.pdf
The Links Between the Neighborhood Food Environment and Childhood Nutrition
The “neighborhood food environment” refers to both the availability of healthy foods within a community and how easily residents can access those foods. There is a growing understanding that barriers to accessing healthy foods play a role in poor dietary decisions. This paper by the Prevention Institute identifies key investigations of the neighborhood food environment, examines current efforts to bring about improvements, and discusses new research and policy priorities.
http://www.preventioninstitute.org/pdf/FoodEnv11.07.pdf
Building Healthy Communities: Expanding Access to Fresh Food Retail
Building Healthy Communities is a report written by the Food Policy Advisory Committee in New Orleans, offering 10 recommendations to bring supermarkets and other fresh food retail back to the city. http://www.sph.tulane.edu/PRC/Files/FPAC%20Report%20Final.pdf
F as in Fat 2009: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America*
This annual report from Trust for America’s Health examines obesity rates in each state, as well as the policies state and local governments are enacting to help address the problem. Although many promising policies have emerged to promote physical activity and good nutrition in communities, the report concludes that they are not being adopted or implemented at levels needed to turn around this health crisis.
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2009/Obesity2009Report.pdf
*To learn more about state-level legislative action view the supplement to this report here: http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2009/StateSupplement2009.pdf
F as in Fat 2008: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America
This annual report from Trust for America’s Health examines obesity rates in each state, as well as the policies state and local governments are enacting to help address the problem. Although many promising policies have emerged to promote physical activity and good nutrition in communities, the report concludes that they are not being adopted or implemented at levels needed to turn around this health crisis.
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2008/
Balance: A Report on State Action to Promote Nutrition, Increase Physical Activity and Prevent Obesity
The Balance report summarizes the key legislative and non-legislative action and trends of 2007. It includes information on active-living and healthy-eating initiatives in schools and communities, and how state policies progressed during the previous year.
http://www.rwjf.org/childhoodobesity/product.jsp?id=31471
Promising Strategies for Creating Healthy Eating and Active Living Environments
This report offers a comprehensive and cross-cutting review of policy, strategy and program recommendations to realize the vision of healthy people in healthy places. Prevention Institute developed this document for the Convergence Partnership after conducting extensive research and numerous interviews with diverse stakeholders and constituencies. Promising Strategies provides a menu of options for various audiences to advance or expand environmental change and policy strategies.
http://www.convergencepartnership.org/atf/cf/%7B245A9B44-6DED-4ABD-A392-AE583809E350%7D/CP_Promising%20Strategies_printed.pdf
Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities, and Youth Obesity
This publication describes the insights gained from three county-school dialogues and contains practical, replicable information for community leaders derived from their peers. The report also describes two related forums with African-American and Latino county officials regarding the impacts of obesity among the youth of their communities. http://www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=106
Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities through Food Retailing
One necessity of good health is being able to easily buy and eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods. All too often, however, healthy food options are limited – or completely unavailable – in low-income communities. This lack of local access to healthy, affordable food affects what people eat and ultimately threatens both individual and community vitality – residents risk obesity and other poor health conditions, and communities suffer. This report discusses this issue and provides solutions. Healthy Food, Healthy Communities highlights three of the most promising strategies: developing new grocery stores, improving the selection and quality of food in existing smaller stores and starting and sustaining farmers’ markets.
http://www.policylink.org/pdfs/HealthyFoodHealthyCommunities.pdf
Tools & Toolkits:
Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
This toolkit includes standardized measurement tools for assessing various aspects of community food security. It includes a general guide to community assessment and focused materials for examining six components related to community food security. These include guides for profiling general community characteristics and community food resources, as well as materials for assessing household food security, food resource accessibility, food availability and affordability and community food production resources. The toolkit was developed through a collaborative process that was initiated at the community Food Security Assessment Conference sponsored by Economic Research Service (ERS) in June 1999. It is designed for use by community-based nonprofit organizations and business groups, local government officials, private citizens and community planners.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EFAN02013/
Nutritional Environment Measures Survey (NEMS)
The NEMS Tools are observational measures of community nutrition environments in stores and restaurants. The measures focus on availability of healthful choices, prices and quality.
http://www.med.upenn.edu/nems/
Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool (ENACT)
ENACT is a hands-on assessment and planning resource for organizations, coalitions, schools and communities that are trying to improve their nutrition and physical activity environments. It was created by the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, and the tool can be used on a yearly basis to evaluate past and current efforts around nutrition and physical activity improvements and offer new priorities for the year ahead. http://www.preventioninstitute.org/sa/enact/members/index.php
Moving to the Future
This is a tool to help users develop local programs that will successfully support healthier eating and more physical activity. It includes guidelines on how to conduct a community assessment; appropriately determine the priorities; and create, implement and evaluate a plan.
http://www.movingtothefuture.org/
Community Toolbox
The Community Toolbox can help users build communities that are healthier in many ways. It is a place where people who have created changes in their communities can share their strategies and tools with those starting their own efforts.
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/Default.htm
Getting the Lay of the Land
This tool provides guidelines for small-group activity with community stakeholders to identify local issues related to healthy eating and active living. It can be useful at the start of a project to get a sense of the major issues that may emerge in the community. It can help community members recognize the value of a community approach to obesity prevention, including description of the obstacles to physical activity that residents may face. The tool was developed by Cornell University.
http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/obesity/PDFs/LayofLand.pdf
Combating Childhood Obesity Action Kit
This toolkit from the National League of Cities contains research and practices from across the nation. It offers a wide-ranging menu of opportunities for municipal leadership to make children, youth and family issues a community-wide priority. Whether you are ready to launch a major initiative or are just getting started, the ideas in this toolkit will help you move forward.
http://www.nlc.org/ASSETS/FC9AD61015584D1789198583E6C888E8/IYEF_Action_Kit_Childhood_Obesity.pdf
The Leadership for Healthy Communities Action Strategies Toolkit
This toolkit outlines numerous policy strategies designed to reduce childhood obesity and create healthier communities. Eleven of the nation's most prominent policy-maker organizations were instrumental in creating this toolkit, and in the preface of this comprehensive resource, the organizations expressed their committment to work collaboratively across levels of government to build healthier communities. Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was created to support local and state leaders nationwide in their efforts to promote healthy, active communities and access to affordable healthy foods.
http://www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org/actionstrategies
Web Sites:
National Cancer Institute–Measures of the Food Environment
This Web site provides a compilation of articles that include community-level measures of the food environment, as well as some of the instruments themselves. Here, the food environment is defined to include food stores, restaurants, schools, and worksites. The Web site will be updated on a weekly basis.
https://riskfactor.cancer.gov/mfe/instruments/
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