Bronx Health REACH and Elected Officials

New York State Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, Chairman of the Education Committee, spoke at Bronx Health REACH's September 6th Coalition meeting.

New York State Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, Chairman of the Education Committee, discussed his continuing support of school wellness programming at Bronx Health REACH's September Coalition meeting. He spoke about sponsoring NY State Assembly Bill A7607, which directs the Commissioner of Education to establish a New York State model wellness policy for local educational agencies as well as a school district wellness policy database.

The Assemblyman assured Coalition members that he was committed to helping Bronx Health REACH and our Bronx partner schools ensure that policies supporting school wellness continue. To that end, he agreed to meet with members of the WELL campaign committee to continue this conversation. NY State Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez, a co-sponsor of the bill, was also in attendance and spoke briefly to the meeting attendees.

Left to right: Lauren Phillips from the Food Bank for New York City, Naureen Akhter, Deputy Director to NY Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, Kelly Moltzen and Moria Byrne-Zaaloff from Bronx Health REACH, and Jerome Nathaniel from City Harvest.

Bronx Health REACH's Kelly Moltzen and Moria Byrne-Zaaloff joined Lauren Phillips from the Food Bank for New York City and Jerome Nathaniel from City Harvest, member organizations of the NYC Alliance for Child Nutrition Reauthorization (NYC4CNR), for a meeting with Naureen Akhter, Deputy District Director to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez (NY). They are seeking Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez's support for high-quality nutrition education programming, modernizing school kitchen equipment, increasing access to scratch cooking in schools, as well as expanding programs that reduce food insecurity and improve regional farm and food economies.

Don't Stress, Eat Fresh Healthy Bodega Campaign was at Boogie on the Boulevard

Participants exercising with low sodium bean cans purchased from a local partner bodega. 

On Sunday, September 15th, the center lanes of the Grand Concourse, from 162nd Street to 170th Streets were closed to vehicles and open to a world of fun for the 6th Annual Boogie on the Boulevard. The Institute for Family Health/Bronx Health REACH was one of the sponsors of the event that featured music, art, dance, fitness programs and healthy food samples for Bronx residents to enjoy.

Bronx Health REACH showcased the Don't Stress, Eat Fresh Healthy Bodega campaign as part of its Healthy Bodega block. There were delicious healthy food samples from Sustainable Snacks, Cabot Cheese and partner bodega Aqui me Quedo. The Healthy Beverage Zone distributed fruit infused water. Partners in the Fresch Grab & Go! Bodega initiative offered healthy food samples.

One mom pointing to the Rethink Your Drink! display with the large, sugar filled bag beneath the Arizona Iced Tea can, warned her son that if he continues to drink it everyday, he will suffer from diabetes and other health complications as he gets older.

In addition to all the food sampling, there was the Healthy Bodega challenge games led by  Maurelhena Walles and Talik Norman of Equity Design. Participants had fun using cans of low sodium beans as weights to exercise. There was also a relay race to gather as many healthy food items as you would find in a bodega.  To cap off all the activities at the Healthy Bodega Block there was a raffle and four lucky winners each received a Healthy Bodega Bag stocked with all kinds of goodies. Fun was had by all.

11 Faith Based Organizations Participated in Healthy Children, Healthy Families Program

Leaders from 11 faith based organizations attended an orientation for the Healthy Children, Healthy Families program.

On September 9th, Bronx Health REACH held an orientation on the Healthy Children, Healthy Families program for 28 leaders representing 11 faith based organizations. The eight week program for children (ages 8-12) and their parents/caregivers seeks to increase healthy eating and active living and reduce high rates of obesity in the Bronx. The orientation included an overview of the program structure, reviewed key nutrition concepts featured in each of the eight-week sessions and, best practices for teaching the curriculum.

This orientation was the first of a series of trainings on how to run the program led by Bronx Health REACH long-time nutrition consultant, Loyce Godfrey. The 11 faith based organizations currently participating are the final wave of churches in the program as the funding provided by the Office of Minority Health ends in 2020.

Participating faith based organizations include: Iglesia Cristiana De La Comunidad, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Misión Pentecostal Rehoboth/Water of Life Church, Creston Avenue Baptist Church, King of Glory Tabernacle, Temple of the Living God, Seventh Day Adventist Grand Concourse, Fellowship Baptist Church, Williams Institutional CME Church and Pentecostal Church of Washington Heights, and Masjid Rahmah.

Bronx Health REACH Awarded Community Impact Grant from the American Heart Association

Members of the Fresch team offered healthy food samples at Boogie on the Boulevard.

The American Heart Association (AHA) awarded Bronx Health REACH a Community Impact Grant. Funding from this grant will support the Fresch Grab & Go! Initiative that will develop and promote healthy food items at 3-5 Bronx bodegas in partnership with the Bronx Bodega Partners Workgroup, Bascom Catering and City Harvest. Taste tests and surveys will be conducted at bodegas, schools and other community organizations to determine which food items will be sold. Since 2009, the AHA Community Impact Grant has given more than $1 million to 42 recipients.

Loyce Godfrey's Commitment to Health, Nutrition, and Faith Based Organizations in the Bronx

Bronx Health REACH (BHR) faith and nutrition consultant, Loyce Godfrey, has been working with faith-based participants in the Healthy Children, Healthy Families program over the past two years. The Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health funded initiative aims to reduce childhood obesity. Loyce developed the curriculum and trains faith-based leaders to teach the nutrition program. She has a long history working with Bronx Health REACH as a faith-based community leader and creator of the Fine, Fit and Fabulous program, one of our most successful health promotion programs. BHR’s Healthy Children, Healthy Families Program Manager, Emily Oppenheimer spoke with Loyce about her commitment to health, nutrition, and faith based organizations in the Bronx.

How did you get your start in health and nutrition?

I attended Tuskegee University and studied nutrition. It took me a while to graduate from college because I got involved in the civil rights movement. Before graduation, I was hired for a job in New York City. I started my first job as an assistant manager at Chock Full o’ Nuts. I was the first African American woman hired there in a management position. At the time there were no explicit policies addressing sexual harassment in the workplace when I was sexually harassed by some of the male colleagues there. It became uncomfortable for me to work there, so I left the company.

From there, I got my start with community-based jobs. I went into child daycare dietetics. I even owned my own daycare center for a while. Then I got involved with seniors. Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council decided they wanted to start a catering service, so I worked with them to get that up and going. 

I worked on opening the first SAGE Center in New York. (SAGE Center is the first full-time LGBT senior center in the country that offers services and programs related to arts and culture, fitness, food and nutrition, and health and wellness). I wrote operating nutrition services procedures, led trainings, secured permits, found a caterer to comply with requirements for meal serving, established record keeping, etc. I have also worked with City Meals on Wheels creating a healthy heart kitchen for seniors and have just completed a project for seniors who may have oral health challenges.

At one point you co-owned a store that featured arts, crafts and clothing imported from Africa.

Yes, I was a partner. It was a very healing, holistic experience. I have always liked to explore and visit faraway places. It may have come from growing up in a small town. I was interested in other parts of the world where black people lived. I liked some of the cultural aspects that were so authentic, like the wood-carved furniture. There were lots of cultural activities in NYC, and through that network I met a woman from West Africa who needed help with her store.

How did you connect with Bronx Health REACH?

Joyce Davis (one of the early leaders of BHR) and I worked together at Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council. During one of our conversations, I told her about a new ministry I had started at my church around healthy topics and nutrition. She told me that she was involved in a similar project with churches and BHR. She invited me to attend a BHR meeting. At the meeting church leaders were sharing updates on their work. When I spoke about what I was doing, Charmaine (Charmaine Ruddock, Project Director of BHR) said, “That’s exactly what we are trying to do!”

For me, this was my first time hearing about government funding opportunities for these projects. I knew health was a major concern in the Bronx so I would share my work at these meetings. I began consulting with BHR by providing workshops and assistance. I discovered that people who attended my church meetings would go eat at Popeyes afterwards. That felt so disconnected from the program I was leading with them. I bet that most of the women who attended the meeting had diabetes, heart disease or some other chronic disease. I was very concerned, so I thought, how could I get my point across so that those attending would no longer go to Popeyes afterwards? How could I combine the faith-based piece with the health behavior to change motivations? How could we align these two key principles? This led me to work on Fine, Fit and Fabulous.

What is a heritage food?

All of the heritage foods are real foods. All come from plants, from the ground. None of them were processed. After being brought to this country, many of those foods are still used in their original natural form.

The aim of our Healthy Children, Healthy Families program is to get families to eat more nutritious foods. What kinds of changes have you seen so far?

One of the barriers to eating healthier is the disconnect people have between real foods/heritage foods and processed junk foods. We are looking to show Bronx families that food, in its natural form, has not changed over the years. It is still the best nourishment for them. These real foods were so important for many generations. These foods sustain people and promote health. The goal is to get people to eat more real, healthy foods. For the families that have participated in the Healthy Children, Healthy Families programs, we are seeing more interest in eating vegetables and fruits. I am optimistic about seeing more of these positive changes. The excitement, cooperation, and passion of the churches is inspiring. Helping these churches to keep that energy alive after the program ends is so important and I think we can do it. For example, one of our church partners has a garden and I see that as a way for them to continue this work to grow and eat God’s real foods.

Helping Bronx Seniors Eat Healthier through Healthy Food Demonstrations

This post was written by Olivia Wurgaft, an intern at Bronx Health REACH and student attending Washington University.

As a Global Health major at Washington University, I would like to pursue a career in public health after I graduate. It is one of the reasons I was so happy that, as part of my internship at Bronx Health REACH, I got to work on their Food Service Guidelines initiative with meal serving sites in the Bronx. Specifically, I had the privilege of leading two healthy food demonstrations.

During the month of June, Bronx Health REACH held healthy food demonstrations at the Presbyterian Senior Services Parkside (PSS Parkside) and Presbyterian Senior Services Jackson (PSS Jackson) sites in the Bronx. PSS is a nonprofit agency with nine community centers that strive to strengthen the capacity of older New Yorkers, their families, and communities to thrive. PSS Parkside and Jackson clients receive meals, exercise classes, technology training, group trips, and a multitude of other services. These food demonstrations are part of Bronx Health REACH’s efforts to help sites serve healthier meals to their clients.

Earlier this year, Bronx Health REACH collaborated with Lenox Hill Teaching Kitchen to provide trainings for PSS Jackson and PSS Parkside staff. Lenox Hill Teaching Kitchen designed a daylong food business training to help nonprofit organizations prepare and serve institutional meals that increase fresh, healthy, and local foods to support their clients’ health. The outcome of this training was to gain a better understanding of how to serve meals with more scratch cooking with fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and less sugar, fat, and salt. At the end of the training the goal of the kitchen staff from PSS Jackson and PSS Parkside is to increase their use of fresh, healthy and local food.

 In addition to the training, Bronx Health REACH has been providing PSS Jackson and PSS Parkside with technical support to achieve these goals including food demonstrations. These demonstrations are to introduce healthier food to clients through tastings, give them a say in what appears on their menu, and show them that healthy food can be tasty and inexpensive. Both sites chose “Olga’s Bulgur with Chicken” as the recipe for their demonstration because it includes more vegetables and whole grains and less meat.

Before the demonstration, I went to a supermarket close to the site, to make sure the ingredients were easily available for clients to make the dish themselves. I also made sure to price out the recipe to make sure it was affordable.

At both sites I arrived around lunchtime to prepare for the demonstration. While I was chopping and measuring out the carrots, celery, peas, and garlic, some clients came up to ask what I was doing, which told me they were interested in learning about what they were going to eat. Some were also apprehensive of trying something new, but promised they would keep an open mind. I started each food demonstration with a discussion about the nutritional benefits of each ingredient. I emphasized how the fiber in the bulgur wheat improves digestion, the vitamin A in carrots improves eyesight, and how low sodium soy sauce reduces salt intake, which is particularly beneficial for people with high blood pressure or diabetes.

I sautéed the chicken, added the vegetables and mixed them in with the bulgur wheat, explaining the process as I went along. Before adding it to the pan, I brought the pot of bulgur wheat around to each participant, explaining that it can be used similarly to rice and showing them what it looked like. When the dish was finished, I distributed samples for everyone to try. Participants filled out surveys about the recipe and the demonstration. At PSS Parkside, the responses were overwhelmingly positive. Most of the participants enjoyed the recipe and wanted it on the menu. One client said that the “dish was filling, [and had] nice and crunchy vegetables.” Another loved how it was “economic and easy to make at home.”

 At PSS Jackson, the participants were more wary to try a new dish. However, after watching the demonstration and becoming more comfortable with the ingredients, not only did they try it, but they really liked it. One client explained, “I liked this activity because it allowed me to try new and interesting foods that I could possibly have more of in the future.” This comment reaffirmed for me the benefits of food demonstrations and similar programs that expose participants to healthy and tasty options. Without this demonstration, many clients would never have tried bulgur, and now, after liking it, wanted it in their meals. After these successful food demonstrations, I am both excited and hopeful that PSS Parkside and PSS Jackson can easily add healthy, tasty, and economical recipes to their menus to increase the health and well-being of their clients.

This interactive and fun activity was extremely useful in keeping clients educated and involved in menu planning at their sites. Many told me that they wanted to eat healthier, but did not have access to the right ingredients or the knowledge of how to do it in an inexpensive way. Through the food demonstration, they were able to learn about this recipe that will help them do just that. From this experience, I learned that sometimes all it takes to open people up to new ideas, such as eating healthier meals, is the opportunity for them to try it. My internship enabled me to help Bronx Health REACH provide this opportunity.  I believe both sites will have an easier transition to a healthier menu.