Changing the Landscape
While waiting in line at the convenience store located doors away from my legislative office on South Broad Street, it became clear why we are losing the fight to prevent childhood obesity.
Imagine this:
Directly in front of you is a bullet-proof window encased with numerous types of candy, gum, and cigarettes. To the right, there’s a wall covered with a variety of single-serving cake snacks and cookies, and to the left there’s a wall covered with potato chips, pretzels and popcorn. As you move forward and reach over the popsicle-filled freezer to pay for your items, you notice that, in the corner, on the top of the freezer, are gently bruised bananas, oranges and apples all snuggled together in one little box.
These were the dynamics of that corner store I stood inside of, that patronizes dozens of students and community members daily. And pushed to the corner, overshadowed by a plethora of salty and sweet delights nicely wrapped in shiny colorful packaging, was our answer to conquering childhood obesity.
Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in our communities that threatens the future of our youth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of children (that’s over 9 million) between the ages of 6 and 19 are overweight or obese, a number that has tripled since 1980.
The reality is, it’s easier to obtain candy and soda from the corner stores than it is to access fresh food from a supermarket or farmer’s market. In order to fight against childhood obesity, it’s important to reverse the ailing geographical landscape and make healthy food easily accessible. Although these convenience stores may provide quick-fixes for our children and community members, they are providing long-term, unhealthy, habits that will take them the rest of their lives to repair.
As a result, our children are engaging in unhealthy activities that are impacting their physical well-being. Not only are our children dealing with issues of violence and educational inadequacies, they are dealing with health deficiencies that’s having a major impact on our community as a whole.
I understand that a direct response to this growing epidemic is education and activity. Although the previously-mentioned statistics seem devastating, we have the ability to reverse the effects of childhood obesity. It’s vital that we teach children the importance of healthy eating and exercising so it can become a part of a lifestyle that they adopt for life. However, this is useless if they don’t have the tools to help them in their journey. This is like trying to teaching children the importance of reading, without providing books.
I will continue to support the efforts of initiatives, like A Healthy Future Within Reach, that work to educate our children about the importance of making healthy decisions.
In addition, I plan to make sure we continue working towards reversing this ailing geographical landscape and make healthy food establishments, such as farmer markets, and community gardens easily accessible.
Lastly, Thursday July 21, I am hosting my second Kiddy Olympic and Health Expo at the Christian Street YMCA in South Philadelphia. This event will feature several Olympic-style events to help youth get motivated and educated about being fit and staying healthy.
Like the small box of fruit that lay in the corner of that convenience store, many urban communities experience a similar set-up and are bombarded with unhealthy options that are easily accessible, while healthy options are out of site, and all too often, out of reach. It’s time to change the landscape.
Contributed by State Representative Kenyatta Johnson
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“The effort to get fresh fruits and veggies into every household in our country is not just a Stars Within Reach effort. It will require a little help from all of us! Check out what our neighbors in Point Breeze are doing and let us know what you can do in your neighborhood? or maybe one that is close by! Healthy options equal healthy living.
~Nichole Badger, Esq., Founder of Stars Within Reach
The Food Trust works to bring healthier food into Philadelphia’s schools and corner stores and more farmers’ markets and supermarkets into its neighborhoods.
If you have a supermarket selling fresh, affordable, high-quality produce in your neighborhood, you might be wondering why this issue is so vital. The 23.5 million Americans who live more than a mile from the nearest supermarket don’t have to wonder. They struggle to feed their families healthy foods – travelling great distances to the nearest supermarket, paying higher prices for lower-quality food at corner stores and suffering from higher rates of obesity and other chronic diet-related diseases.
At The Food Trust, we’ve been working on the related issues of food access and childhood obesity for almost 20 years. We’ve developed a comprehensive approach that combines nutrition education and improved access to healthy, affordable food – and we’ve seen it working here in Philadelphia.
You may know us through our work with farmers’ markets. We operate more than 20 farmers’ markets in Philadelphia, including the city’s longest-running farmers’ market at Clark Park, the city’s largest open-air market at Headhouse, and one that we’re particularly proud of in the neighborhood of Point Breeze.
In 2010, with the help of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, state Sen. Larry Farnese, state Rep. Kenyatta Johnson and Diversified Community Services as well as neighbors and other community groups, The Food Trust established the Point Breeze Farmers’ Market as a source of fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables.
The community has made it a success, welcoming farmer Reuben Riehl of Riehl Farms in Honey Brook, Chester County, a former dairy farmer who is expanding his fruit and vegetable harvest. Reuben grows a wide variety of vegetables from tomatoes and corn to salad greens. He also brings great peaches, plums and apples from his brother-in-law’s orchard.
The Point Breeze Farmers’ Market welcomes SNAP benefits (as food stamp benefits are now known), Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program Vouchers and Philly Food Bucks. Philly Food Bucks, a program of The Food Trust and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Get Healthy Philly initiative, extends the buying power of SNAP; for every $5 a customer spends in SNAP, he or she receives a coupon for $2 worth of fresh fruits and vegetables. That’s 40 percent more fruits and vegetables for Philadelphia families.
Get your fruits and vegetables at the Point Breeze Farmers’ Market every Tuesday from 2 pm to 6 pm, June through October at 22nd and Tasker streets, in front of the Mamie Nichols Community Center.
And join Reuben Riehl and The Food Trust on Saturday, June 11th, as we support Stars Within Reach and the community of Point Breeze in the launch of ‘A Healthy Future Within Reach’ – an interactive, multimedia campaign to raise awareness for childhood obesity and health education for children living in urban areas.
When Michelle Obama came to Philadelphia to launch her Let’s Move campaign, she praised the city for its dedication to addressing the issues of childhood obesity and food access. “We know it won’t be easy to solve this obesity crisis,” Obama said. “But if there’s anyone out there who doubts that it can be done, then I would urge them to come here to Philadelphia.”
We urge you to come to Point Breeze —and to go home with a bounty of farm-fresh local produce!
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