Harvest Home Brings Local, Farm-Fresh Produce to Soundview

                                                                Photo by Brian Nobili

From left to right: NY State Assemblyman Marcos A. Crespo, Harvest Home CEO Marita Owens, and NYC Council member Annabel Palma.

Soundview residents no longer have to travel outside the community for farm-fresh produce as the debut of The Soundview Farmers Market officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, June 20. New York State Assemblyman Marcos A. Crespo and New York City Council member Annabel Palma along with many from the Soundview community in attendance. This new market, located at Morrison Avenue between Harrod Place and Westchester Avenue in the Bronx, will serve more than 60,000 residents, including approximately 10,000 SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/food stamp) recipients. The market will offer farm fresh fruits and vegetables from Alstede farms, a New Jersey grower.

To encourage residents to shop at the Soundview Farmers Market, Harvest Home has partnered with the Institute of Family Health through its Bronx Health REACH program to issue Fruit and Vegetable Rx to its patients at the Stevenson Health Center. Located at Morrison Avenue between Westchester Avenue and Harrod Place, the Market is open every Saturday through November 21, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. rain or shine. Bring your SNAP/EBT, WIC Farmer's Market and Senior Farmer Market coupons along with Health Bucks. News12 covered the event.

Having a farmers market in this area has been a long held dream of Assemblyman Marcos A. Crespo (D- Bronx, 85th AD). And, he, in conjunction with other New York State and New York City Elected Officials from the Bronx heartily welcome Harvest Home Farmers market to the Soundview community. Assemblyman Crespo noted that, “Healthy eating habits promote overall healthy lifestyles, which is why I am excited about welcoming Harvest Home Farmers Market to Soundview.” He pointed out that “Bringing in an array of healthy and organic produce to our community, in an affordable way, enhances healthier choices for both adults and children.”

Council Member Annabel Palma (D-Bronx, 18th Council District), a big supporter of the market stated, “I am excited to have a new farmers market in the Soundview section of my district; now my community will have better access to healthy food. I firmly believe that, when given the opportunities, New Yorkers want to eat healthy – they simply need to be provided the option.”

Neil S. Calman, MD, President and CEO of The Institute for Family Health stated, “I am thrilled that there is a farmers market opening in Soundview. We, at the Institute for Family Health, are deeply invested in improving the health and well-being of the residents of the Bronx and bringing fresh fruits and vegetables is a major breakthrough.”

Saturday's events included cooking demonstrations and a Bronx based disc jockey playing music. The Soundview Farmers Market can be reached by taking the 6 train to the Morrison Ave-Soundview station or the Bx4, Bx4a, Bx27 buses. Harvest Home Farmers Market will operate every Saturday rain or shine from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through November 21st, 2015. WIC, FMNP Coupons, Senior FMNP Coupons, Health Bucks, SNAP (EBT) and Debit/Credit Cards  will all be accepted.

Click here to view photos from the event.

Taking Action for Physical Education

Recent efforts to increase student access to physical education in NYC public schools and obtain data on schools compliance with state mandates for PE have been met with good news: The Department of Education has committed to spending $6.6 million to hire 50 more PE teachers and "conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to address barriers and move schools toward full PE compliance." As part of the city budget, this provision in will address school compliance with federal regulations requiring equal access to sports for girls. School wellness and physical education advocates celebrate this success as a first step to improve the quantity and quality of physical education provided to students in NYC public schools. Still, there is much more to be done in order to make significant changes.

In an effort to work toward these changes, Bronx Health REACH has collaborated with the Phys. Ed. For All Coalition, in partnership with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Women’s City Club of NYC, The American Heart Association, and many others to draw attention to the disparities in PE programming our city’s children currently receive, as detailed in Comptroller Scott Stringer’s recent report, “Dropping the Ball: Disparities in Physical Education in NYC Public Schools.” According to the report, more than 400,000 students in NYC public schools do not have access to either a full-time, certified PE teacher, designated gym space, or nearby park for outdoor fitness activities. The Phys. Ed. For All Coalition has been crafting legislation for Intro 644 — a reporting bill that would require the Department of Education to track and report data on which schools are adhering to state mandates for physical education, including the required amount of time and certified teachers dedicated to PE and other demographic information. While the DOE is concerned that this bill could place an undue burden on individual schools, it would bring us one step closer to being able to identify which schools require additional assistance. Such transparency would ensure that all students receive the quality PE program they are entitled to by law.

Recent highlights of this campaign have included a press conference and oversight hearing led by City Councilmembers Dromm and Crowley, and Bronx Health REACH staff members Charmaine Ruddock and Kelly Moltzen featured in the media. Our coalition is optimistic about the future of the reporting bill and the impact it would have on the health of our city’s children. Given the evidence that high quality physical education is linked with reduced risk for obesity, enhanced focus and memory, and improved academic outcomes in children, increasing access to PE could have important implications for the overall health and success of future generations.

You can view NY1 coverage on Intro 644 here.

Reducing Obesity: Not Simple But Doable

Photo via k lachshand

Eating these is one way to reduce obesity.

James R. Knickman President & CEO at the New York StateHealth Foundation  asked the million dollar question in his Huffington Post piece, “What's Workingto Reduce Obesity?” In his post Mr. Knickman reveals that researchers from Drexel University studied a range of experiments aimed at reducing obesity, assessing how effective those strategies were. Researchers concluded that measures such as improving sidewalks and banning trans fats had strong impact but other approaches such as restaurants posting nutrition information had very little, to no impact.

So what does work to reduce obesity?

Mr. Knickman believes reducing obesity comes down to the following points:

- Better and more research will provide a better sense of the impact of various strategies reducing obesity in communities

- Different populations require different strategies so research can determine which approaches are most effective for high risk populations

- Seek out the economic and social benefits of interventions

- Success happens when communities and neighborhoods make it easy and affordable to be physically active and eat healthy foods, rather than one method such as banning trans fats

- All these healthy components add up to create “a neighborhood value, a point of pride” and becomes a part of the culture.

Mr. Knickman asks, “What is the best bang for your buck?” Here at the Bronx Health REACH Coalition we have launched the Towards A Healthier Bronx initiative using policy, systems and environmental improvements that increase access to healthy food, healthy beverages and opportunities for physical activity for over 75% of 675,215 residents residing in 12 high need South Bronx zip codes. Many public health campaigns rely heavily on clinical evidence, but fail to research the motivating factors relevant to that audience. To avoid this our campaign emphasizes actionable health behaviors.

Led by the Institute for Family Health, Bronx Health REACH was formed in 1999 to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes in diabetes and heart disease in African American and Latino communities in the southwest Bronx. Since then the Bronx Health REACH coalition has grown to include over 70 community-based organizations, 47 faith-based organizations, and health care providers. Bronx Health REACH serves as a national model of community empowerment demonstrating ways to build healthier communities by promoting healthy life-style behaviors.

The plan behind Towards A Healthier Bronx is:

- Increasing the number of bodegas and restaurants involved in incentive programs offering and promoting affordable healthy foods

- Increasing the number of farm stands making healthy food more affordable and available to the community

- Increasing the number of public and charter elementary schools emphasizing nutrition education and supporting related school policies

Partnering with bodega, deli and restaurant owners by providing them with training and education makes these initiatives not only a healthy benefit for their customers, but an economic benefit for the business owner. Encouraging chefs to attend monthly trainings on healthy food preparation results in offering patrons 2 to 3 healthier menu options. As New York City neighborhood demographics change, the restaurants and bodegas can now more easily adapt to the healthy choices their new customers are seeking resulting in those restaurant and bodega owners seeing more customers come into their stores and restaurants and gaining more revenue.

Mr. Knickman also states, “So if menu labeling isn't working for the target population--as the Drexel research and other studies suggest--we need to find and test other ways to make the healthy choice the easy choice.” Euny C. Lee, Evaluator and Policy Analyst at Bronx Health REACH agrees with Mr. Knickman citing a New York University study, “Calorie Labeling Has Barely Any Effecton Teenagers' or Parents' Food Purchases” which revealed that posting calories for food items at fast food restaurants had no impact on what consumer purchased.

Euny has moderated several focus groups with our faith-based coalition members to determine which types of messages encourage healthy behavior such as healthy eating and physical activity. Findings reveal educating the community about daily calorie intake to be important as most were not aware that you should consume no more than 2000 calories a day to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Messaging matters as well. Signs and posters promoting a health benefit rather than a scare tactic elicit more positive behavior changes. Interventions have to be customized to a specific demographic/ethnic group so that it is culturally and linguistically understandable and appropriate. Other results include social support such as having a friend or family member who you are accountable to for your actions to reach the desired health goals.

Focus group members felt this ad was not accurate saying the soda bottle should be bigger and would be more effective if other ailments such as diabetes and heart disease that causes stroke were listed.

Focus group members felt the above ad was actually a real advertisement selling juice boxes and a better message would have been the child drinking from a water bottle.

But the question still remains. “What is doable in the fight to reduce obesity?” Bronx Health REACH can point to a few projects. A city wide campaign was created to serve only low-fat and fat-free milk rather than whole milk at New York City public schools. Bronx Health REACH educated policy makers, Coalition members and residents from the community about obesity and the benefits of reduced fat milk. This led to the New York City Public school system adopting the policy and impacting over 1.1 million children in 1,579 schools as well as a model for public schools in 15 other states.

I don't know if the day will ever arrive where the only thing one needs to do is take a miracle pill that sheds those excess pounds without any physical effort while drinking a large vanilla milkshake every day. What I do know is these healthy initiatives together will begin slowing the overweight/obesity epidemic we now face.