Bronx Health REACH Health Disparities Workgroup Meets with Mayor, Bronx Borough President, City Council Health Committee Chair; Holds Rally at City Hall to Demand that Elected Officials Make the Bronx a Priority

Members of the Bronx Health REACH Health Disparities Workgroup presented Mayor Bill de Blasio with over 2000 signed postcards from Bronx residents urging elected officials to make the health of the Bronx a priority.

 On Monday, November 25th, members of the Bronx Health REACH Coalition’s Health Disparities Workgroup met with Mayor Bill de Blasio to discuss the need for his administration to prioritize the Bronx in light of its persistent last place ranking in health outcomes among New York State’s 62 counties. The Coalition asked the Mayor to ensure that his Administration makes the health of the Bronx a top priority at all levels and in all sectors of New York City’s government, including healthcare, housing, economic development, education, transportation, etc. To demonstrate the broad concern about this problem among Bronx residents, Bronx Health REACH Project Director Charmaine Ruddock and two members of the Health Disparities Workgroup presented the Mayor with over 2,000 signed postcards from Bronx residents.

For the past ten years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin have released the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps Report that measures health outcomes and contributing factors such as education, employment, income and the environment, all of which contribute to the community’s health and the quality of life of its residents. The 2019 report ranked Bronx County 62 out of the 62 counties in New York State, as it has in each of the previous 9 reports. Presently the health ranking of the other four counties/boroughs of NYC is: NYC/Manhattan (5); Queens (8); Brooklyn/Kings County (17); Staten Island/Richmond County (28). All four had their rankings improve from last year. Not so the Bronx.

At the meeting, the Bronx Health REACH representatives asked the Administration to create a task force to identify and address the factors that continually keep the Bronx ranked as the unhealthiest county; have all New York City agencies make the Bronx a funding priority; and appoint a liaison from the Mayor’s office to work with the #Not62: A Campaign for a Healthy Bronx!

Over 50 people attended a #Not62 Rally on the steps of New York City Hall to demand that New York State elected officials make the health of the Bronx a top priority at all levels and in all sectors of government.

 On Tuesday, December 3rd over 50 people gathered for a #Not62: The Campaign for a Healthy Bronx! rally on the steps of New York City Hall. Community leaders from several Bronx based community groups and Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson joined the rally to ask the Mayor, the Bronx Borough President, City Council members and New York State elected officials make the health of the Bronx a top priority.

“The Bronx Health REACH Coalition and its many partners and collaborators have been working hard to ensure that Bronx residents have all the opportunities they need to be healthier,
but we can only do so much. If the Bronx is to no longer rank dead last in all New York State counties in health outcomes, the health of its residents must become a top priority of the elected leadership of New York City and New York State and the entire Bronx community,” remarked Charmaine Ruddock, Project Director for Bronx Health REACH.

Dr. Neil Calman, President and CEO of the Institute for Family Health, which has led the Bronx Health REACH Coalition since 1999, stated, “It is critical that the state and the city work together to address social determinants of health – housing, education, and employment – in order to make real, sustainable changes in the health of the community.”

“Though progress in the Bronx has been made to address the health disparities that persist, much more work remains to be done,” said Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson (Bronx, District 16). “The Jerome Avenue Public Health Taskforce will be releasing a report examining the social determinants of health along Jerome Avenue. By focusing on housing, economic development, public outdoor spaces, healthcare quality and access, and our local food environment, this report will highlight the many ways we can collaborate on all levels of government as well as through local community partnerships to turn the tide on the overall health of our community, and the Bronx as a whole.”

“Year after year, the Bronx ranks 62 out of 62 in health outcomes – the result of a myriad of factors, including air and water pollution, insufficient access to safe and affordable housing, and a lack of access to quality healthcare,” said State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx/Westchester). “If we want our laws to reflect our promise to keep New Yorkers healthy, we must create comprehensive, health coverage for all and pass the New York Health Act. We must prioritize the Bronx at both the state and city level – by putting the Bronx at the top of the list we can start to reverse the trend, and improve health outcomes for Bronxites.”

In 2014 #Not62: A Campaign for A Healthy Bronx! was launched by the Bronx Borough President, the Bronx District Public Health Office, the Institute for Family Health/Bronx Health REACH, and Montefiore Health Systems, Inc. as a direct response to the ranking.

As a founding member of #Not62: A Campaign for a Healthy Bronx!, the Institute for Family Health/Bronx Health REACH Coalition is proud of its efforts to serve as a model of community empowerment that demonstrates how to build healthier communities. We do this by promoting primary prevention through health education; and advocating for the necessary policy, systems and environmental changes that leads to a transformed community that supports health and wellness.

Left to right: Barbara Estrin from the Bronx Health REACH Health Disparities Workgroup, NYC Council Member and Chair of the Council Committee on Health Mark Levine, and Bronx Health REACH's Charmaine Ruddock.

On December 18th, Charmaine Ruddock and Barbara Estrin from the Bronx Health REACH Health Disparities Workgroup met with Council Member and Chair of the Council Committee on Health, Mark Levine. We spoke with Council Member Levine about the  #Not62: A Campaign for a Healthy Bronx! He offered suggestions on how best to go about securing future City Council funding to support the Campaign.

How to Leave a Footprint in New York Communities

The 2019 Creating Healthy Schools and Communities Convening, Leaving a Footprint, Spreading Roots: Sustaining CHSC Activities into the Future, was held on September 10. Kelly Moltzen and Moria Byrne-Zaaloff from Bronx Health REACH and Claire Raffel from the Tisch Food Center at Teacher’s College met with CHSC grantees to discuss how all partners could work together to ensure that our school wellness initiatives are sustained across the state by supporting the WELL Campaign.

One of the goals of the WELL Campaign is to develop a New York State model wellness policy that can be shared with local school districts. The grantees also provided suggestions regarding what this state model should include such as: aligning systems of measuring data across federal, state and city health and education departments to achieve one collective impact; converting state data collection to an electronic system; better NY State Education Department (SED) and NYS Department of Health coordination; a state liaison in SED to support district wellness councils; more wellness tools and training for schools; and better systems for effectively monitoring all schools' successes/implementation of policies.

To lend your support for increased funding to the CHSC and WELL campaigns, please sign our petition.

September Coalition Meeting Addresses the Future of School Wellness

Left to right: Kelly Moltzen from Bronx Health REACH; Laura Raaen from Teachers College, Columbia University; Nicholas Buess from the Food Bank For NYC; Arlen Zamula from the NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene – Harlem Neighborhood Health Action Center; Alice Goodman from the NYC Department of Education – Office of School Wellness; Emma Murat of the Office of School Wellness; Karyn Kirschbaum from Western Suffolk BOCES and Moria Byrne-Zaaloff from Bronx Health REACH.


 The Bronx Health REACH  (BHR) Coalition made School Wellness their  priority in September. At our September coalition meeting, which, interestingly fell on the second day of the new school year, the meeting agenda focused on the status of state and federal programs supporting child nutrition and wellness and how to collectively advocate for continued funding and support for all New York State students. Putting the state of NYC wellness in context, Emma Murat of the Office of School Wellness gave an overview of NYC Department of Education’s wellness programming, specifically their multi-year physical and health education pilot programs.

Bronx Health REACH's Kelly Moltzen and Moria Byrne-Zaaloff highlighted BHR’s significant contributions to Bronx County schools over the past four years by providing technical assistance and professional development training to 70 schools and evaluation and resources to 73 schools of our over 90 partner schools to increase nutrition education and physical activity. On a city-wide level, Creating Healthy Schools and Communities funding allowed BHR to work with the NYC Department of Education to update its school wellness policy to meet federal policy standards.

Lining up federal and city wellness policies led the way to passing laws that support school wellness such as free lunch for all 1.1 million City public-school students in the five boroughs through the Lunch4learning  campaign. It also resulted in the PEWorks program providing funding for professional development training and the hiring of more PE teachers for NYC public schools through the PhysEd4All Campaign – two initiatives that Bronx Health REACH actively supported.

A panel of experts shared how wellness programming has made school environments healthier in NYC and across the state. The panel included: New York State Assemblyman Michael Benedetto; Nicholas Buess from the Food Bank For NYC; Alice Goodman from the NYC Department of Education – Office of School Wellness; Karyn Kirschbaum from Western Suffolk BOCES; Laura Raaen from Teachers College, Columbia University; and Arlen Zamula from the NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene – Harlem Neighborhood Health Action Center.

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

As Chairman of the Education Committee, Assemblyman Benedetto spoke of his commitment to ensuring that school wellness programming continue at current funding levels in New York State. As a steadfast champion for school wellness, he introduced Assembly Bill A7607. The bill would direct the Commissioner of Education to establish a New York state model wellness policy. This model policy would provide NYC and other school districts in the state with the state oversight and support necessary to effectively implement their district policies, hold districts accountable for tracking school building-level results and provide measurable data across the state. The Assemblyman recommitted to helping BHR ensure school wellness continues in the Bronx and across the state and agreed to meet with BHR and the WELL campaign committee to continue this conversation.

We encourage you to sign the petition to obtain state funding for a new version of the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program (2020-2025)  directed by the NYS Department of Health.

Assembly Bill 7607 and other New York State bills can only achieve so much without the federal law it is built on, namely the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, which covers feeding programs for youth such as free breakfast and lunch in schools, afterschool snacks, summer meals, WIC and food pantries. The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act is the glue that makes many of the nutrition education and feeding programs that NYS and NYC offers, possible.

During the panel discussion, Nick Buess discussed the importance of passing a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act to ensure all schools can serve healthy, locally grown food that is made from scratch and provide comprehensive nutrition education courses. Coalition members were also asked to sign the online petition in support of the NYC Alliance for Child Nutrition Reauthorization (NYC4CNR) in order to improve and strengthen federal child nutrition and school meal programs.

CMSP 327 Students Illustrate How to Win Against Competitive Foods

Fifteen students from Comprehensive Model School Project-M.S. 327 participated in a five week course with Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) this summer sponsored by Bronx Health REACH. Susanna Arellano, a teaching artist at CUP, led students through an exploration of the power structures and systems within the NYC Department of Education and an individual school building that impact nutrition and wellness in NYC schools. The students illustrated the main themes of each lesson using art techniques such as print making, photography and infographics. Their art was used to create an educational booklet on how students can make healthy snack choices in schools.

They created a 16 page booklet, Snack Attack, How Can Students Make Healthy Snack Choices in Schools? The information in the booklet was informed by student research. Students took surveys of fellow students and community members to better understand what they consider to be healthy versus unhealthy foods, and which snack options should be available at school. They also photographed paper cut-outs of healthy food pasted onto bodega shelves next to junk food, showing what a healthy bodega would look like.

Students interviewed Stephen O'Brien, Director of the Office of School Food and Nutrition Services, Department of Education and Kelly Moltzen, Program Manager of the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities Program at Bronx Health REACH to gain insight into where the food that is sold in schools comes from, how much does the food change between the farm and the student consumer, and who decides what foods get sold in schools.

“I would make sure that there are no copycat snacks [in schools]," said student Nikosi Whyte. "I would make the food healthier and unprocessed.” 

The booklet will be distributed to community schools in the South Bronx to promote healthy snacking in schools.

Year Two of Service Begins With A Summer Harvest and Cafeteria Improvement Plans

Adrianna gave a presentation at the FoodCorps National Orientation in Portland, Oregon. 

This post is written by Adriana Perez, our FoodCorps member who partners with the Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders (PS457)/the Family School (PS443). Adriana is dedicating a second year of service to engaging students and teachers in creating a school wide culture of health through experiential learning in their school garden, cafeteria and classroom. 


I recently returned from FoodCorp’s National Orientation in Portland, Oregon, where I was able to take a deep dive into planning for my second year of service at the Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders (PS457)/The Family School (PS443) in the Bronx.

During the week-long orientation, I brainstormed with FoodCorps staff and Service Members from across the country, led a session on how to overcome challenging work relationships, renewed my energy and ambitions for the coming school year through project management workshops, and formed a new appreciation for all the work that I accomplished last year.

 This year, I will not only be working at the two schools, but I will be returning to school myself. I will be entering a Master’s program at New York University in Food Studies with a concentration in Food Policy and Advocacy. My courses will help me expand my knowledge on food system issues, increase my understanding of how food and cultures intersect and how to effectively advocate for food system change. My FoodCorps experience at PS457 and PS443 last year has deepened and solidified my belief that not only should healthy, sustainable food be available to every community, but that every community should have the opportunity to learn more about where food comes from, how to prepare it, and how to have a balanced relationship with food. Through my studies at NYU, I will have the knowledge to educate my school community in local food systems and policy, and train them to be school wellness champions.


This year, I have decided to focus on three areas of technical assistance:  garden program development, cafeteria renovation and professional development for teachers. Last year, I worked with the Wellness Council, students and teachers at PS457 and PS443 to rebuild the schools’ garden spaces. I learned how to navigate scheduling conflicts for garden classes and garden management support from students, staff and parents. This year, teachers will be able to schedule their classes on a regular basis to visit the gardens. Garden clubs can help plant, maintain and harvest gardens on their own school properties as well as the community garden, a garden managed by both schools. Once the vegetables and herbs are ready to harvest, parents will be able to pick up or harvest vegetables during dismissal.

Since summer harvesting was so successful at PS443/PS457, Adriana invited parents to pick up seasonal produce at dismissal during the first week of school. What a healthy way to start the new school year!


As my primary responsibility is to work at PS 457, the teachers will not only receive teaching assistance during classes in the garden, but I will also provide support in creating lessons and strategies so that food education can be incorporated into common core standards for every grade. My objective is to equip teachers with tools that will encourage healthy eating for their students while introducing new subject-specific concepts and reinforcing previous lessons.

Finally, my biggest ambition for the year is to work with the Wellness Councils, which now exist as two separate councils, to undertake cafeteria improvements. These changes can be as simple as streamlining the traffic flow on the lunch line or as complex as providing a public announcement system or purchasing new tables for the cafeteria. The Wellness Councils will help me create excitement and strengthen support and engagement from the administration and cafeteria staff as well as aides and parent volunteers managing students during lunch. My hope is that through these changes, all students will be able to have a more enjoyable cafeteria experience through creating excitement around the school food menu in school and greater efficiency in the cafeteria.

This year will be challenging, but I plan to rise to the occasion and hit the ground running with these goals clearly set out before me. I look forward to working with the teachers, meeting new staff, and collaborating more closely with the principles of PS457 and PS443, Ms. Febus and Ms. Penn.

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.

Update on the WELL Campaign

Bronx Health REACH's Kelly Moltzen (far right) speaking to New York State legislators and their staff during a luncheon panel about school wellness.


The Wellness, Equity's Learning Legislation Campaign (WELL), an advocacy effort to improve student health and well-being in New York launched by the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food and Education Policy, gained great momentum this spring. In partnership with Bronx Health REACH, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto and the American Heart Association, the Tisch Center hosted a School Wellness Policy Lunch & Learn in Albany for New York State elected officials.

Those attending included Assemblymembers Felix Ortiz, John Salka, Al Taylor, Donna Lupardo, Karines Reyes, Victor M. Pichardo, Michael DenDekker, Walter Mosley, Nader Sayegh, Marianne Buttenschon, and Kimberly Jean-Pierre. Also attending were Senators Shelley Mayer, John Liu, Alessandra Biaggi, and Jen Metzger. The event included a panel discussion focused on the importance of school wellness policies.

Bronx Health REACH gave school community members an opportunity to learn more about the campaign and to provide feedback at the April meeting of the School-based Nutrition and Fitness Workgroup. Claire Raffel, Director of the WELL Campaign, Kelly Moltzen, Program Manager of the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program at Bronx Health REACH and Andrea Strong of NYC Healthy School Food Alliance led a discussion about how to overcome challenges to city and state-wide school wellness policy change such as advancing nutrition education in NYC schools and what to do about the end of the PEWorks funding for physical education teachers.

With resources only offered to schools when they are failing, if schools succeed in reaching their deliverables and then resources are removed again, it does not allow the schools to maintain the successful education and school wellness programs they endeavor to achieve.  Schools are encouraged to share their stories with the WELL campaign to show legislators the positive impact of wellness programming and why a model NY state wellness policy would give schools the necessary support.

In May, Kelly Moltzen, Program Manager for Bronx Health REACH’s Creating Healthy Schools Communities Program spoke at a press conference hosted by Assemblyman Michael Benedetto who is sponsoring a bill to create a model school wellness policy in New York State.


Bronx Health REACH was very pleased to learn that Assemblyman Michael R. Benedetto agreed to sponsor a bill directing the Commissioner of Education to establish a New York state model wellness policy for local educational agencies. In May, Bronx Health REACH and the WELL Campaign participated in a press conference with the Assemblyman to announce the sponsoring of Bill A07607. Shortly before the assembly recessed for the summer break, the Assemblyman had gathered seven co-sponsors including Assemblyman Pichardo.

Assemblyman Pichardo, who is also a wellness programming advocate, met with Bronx Health REACH and teachers from PS58 earlier this spring to gain some firsthand insight into school wellness challenges and offer support and advice. Bronx Health REACH, Tisch Food Center and other partners will continue to gather the positive stories of wellness programming and seek out more school wellness champions to join their campaign during this summer. Submit your nominee here.

What’s Growing at PS443/PS457 by Food Corps Member Adriana Perez

FoodCorps members assembling garden beds.

This post is written by Adriana Perez, our FoodCorps member who is partnered with the Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders (PS457)/the Family School (PS443). Adriana will dedicate a year of service to engaging students and teachers in creating a school wide culture of health through experiential learning in their school garden, cafeteria and classroom.

Since starting my service year at the Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders and The Family School in the Southwest Bronx, I have been focusing on three pathways to create a school-wide culture of health: rebuilding and expanding the school gardens, exposing students to a variety of fruits and vegetables, and implementing a gardening, cooking and tasting curriculum that inspires and engages each and every student.  This past winter, all 17 NY FoodCorps cohort members participated in a day of service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Using wood donated by Grow NYC, we created eight garden beds in the new community garden at The Family School and the Sheridan Academy for Young Leaders.

Both schools will share the garden. This new garden space will also be used as an outdoor classroom, where students can grow food, explore and relax. The community garden will also provide a source of fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables to families inside and outside of the school.

Throughout the school year, I have held 10 school-wide cafeteria taste tests, including 2 taste tests hosted by George Edwards from the NYC Department of Education Office of Food and Nutrition Services. The taste tests have given every student in the school a chance to be exposed to a variety of food. Foods we have tried include: roasted acorn squash, pomegranate seeds, roasted parsnips and herbed potatoes, plant-part stir fry, rainbow carrots and farro.

Each month, students voted that they “Tried it,” “Liked it,” or “Loved it,” creating, in some instances, fierce debate amongst students on whether or not the food receiving the “loved it” vote was truly worthy. (Spoiler: it usually was).

Worms are our friends!

Inside the classroom, students have been learning every facet of healthy eating. The favorite lesson by far, has been about worms. All of my students, from Kindergarten to Fourth Grade, love finding and touching and learning about worms, and their role in giving us healthy food. One of our favorite mantras, “worms are our friends,” is now most commonly used when someone says, “worms are gross.” Students have been working to understand the relationship between worms and the earth, their role in our gardens and how they too contribute to human health through plants!

With summer here, the garden is full of activity. While still being improved by adding mulch, perennials and seedlings, students are already utilizing the garden spaces during class and after school. With abundant planting and cultivation, these garden spaces will soon be a cornerstone of Sheridan Academy and The Family School’s school-wide culture of health.

CMSP 327 Students Win Countermarketing Competition

Students from CMSP 327 talking about their winning countermarketing campaign at the award ceremony.

Students from three Bronx schools competed for the most effective campaign to combat sugary drink advertisements. The challenge was to create a video, poster or social media campaign exposing the harmful effects of sugar-sweetened beverages. The winning campaign was a rap video, “Food Fight,” submitted by the students of Comprehensive Model School Project (CMSP 327).

Students participated in an eight-session course in countermarketing focused on reducing the demand for unhealthy food by exposing the motives of these food marketing companies and de-normalizing the marketing activities used to sell their products.  The students learned about the health impacts of sugary beverages, the food environment, and how sugary beverage marketers manipulate the youth to buy and consume their products. Students created  media campaigns to raise awareness about the negative health impacts of sugary beverages throughout their school campus, using videos, posters, music, and social media. The students were also encouraged to use the campaigns to drive policy change through petitions, open forums and sit-ins.

CMSP 327 students encouraged fellow classmates to take action by signing a pledge to drink more water for one week. Those that pledged received a button. If a student who signed the pledge was caught breaking their promise, they had to wear an “IV” attached to a soda bottle to represent the addictive qualities of sugar consumption. PS 721 students played their public service announcement videos about the dangers of drinking sugar sweetened coffee drinks before the films were shown at lunchtime each day. PS 811 students ran a poster campaign illustrating the gruesome effects of too much sugar such as tooth decay.

CMSP 327 (the winner) will work with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) where a teaching artist will lead the students in an exploration of such fundamental factors as the power structures and systems that impact nutrition and wellness in NYC schools. They will then produce a professional level video, poster or postcard for the public that will show what they learned. We look forward to seeing how these new champions of countermarketing continue to influence their fellow students, educators, and communities!

BronxNet's OPEN 2.0 spoke with some of the CMSP 327 students involved with the project.

WELL (Wellness, Equity, and Learning Legislation): The Campaign for School Wellness in New York State

It’s March and that means it is National Nutrition Month!  At Bronx Health REACH, one of our priorities this month is in ensuring all students have access to fresh, nutritious food, nutrition education, and environments that promote wellness, so students can make healthy choices starting from a young age. We support schools having strong school wellness councils which can bring needed resources into the school community.  Bronx Health REACH manages the Creating Healthy Schools & Communities Program in the Bronx, a program of the New York State Department of Health, by which we bring technical assistance to over 84 schools throughout school districts 7, 8, 9, and 12. With Bronx Health REACH’s support, school leaders have implemented nutrition education and fitness programming, and established school gardens, at their schools. These efforts support implementation of the school wellness policies required through the United States Department of Agriculture and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

There are many teachers and administrators who act as wellness champions and do all they can to make their schools healthy environments for students. However, most teachers and administrators find it difficult to incorporate wellness initiatives into the school culture. They are burdened with testing requirements and schedules that rightly emphasize academic subjects, but, unfortunately, don’t often emphasize the importance of our children’s health.  There seems to be a failure to recognize that healthier students are better learners and to implement policies and practices that create educational environments that promote healthy lifestyles. The Together for Healthy and Successful Schools Initiative found that New York’s policies only provide “limited” coverage, the second-to-lowest ranking, for comprehensive supports to address students' physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Bronx Health REACH is therefore glad to participate in the WELL Campaign (Wellness, Equity, and Learning Legislation), launched by the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education, and Policy at Teachers, College, Columbia University. The WELL Campaign asks for state-level solutions for students’ well-being by including the following in the 2020 One House Budget Proposal:

• A New York State model wellness policy to share with local schools districts;

• $10 million to support target school districts with wellness policy implementation;

• An online hub to centralize district wellness policies and reports.

Tuesday, March 5th is a Day of Action for the WELL Campaign. This is an opportunity to tell your legislators to prioritize school wellness in the One House Budget Proposal. Click here to take action now!

The beginning of March is critical to let our legislators know that we value school wellness policy leadership in New York State, as the One-House Budget Proposal will be decided on by mid-March and voted on by the end of March.

Other actions that have been taken include Assemblymember Michael Benedetto, Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, circulating a budget letter with the WELL Campaign asks, that 10 members signed onto, including: Anthony D’Urso, Carmen E. Arroyo, Barbara Lifton, Judy Griffin, Douglas Smith, John T. McDonald III, Joseph DeStefano, Anthony Palumbo, Nathalia Fernandez and Michael Reilly.  These 10 who signed on are out of 150 Assemblymembers.  Meanwhile, we need both our Assemblymembers as well as New York State Senators to prioritize this school wellness ask in order for it to be included in the One House Budget Proposal. We have much more work to do in raising awareness about the important proposals in the WELL Campaign!  Assemblyman Benedetto has also agreed to host a legislative Lunch and Learn in Albany on March 26th for legislators. This event will provide legislators with an opportunity to learn about the status of school wellness policy in New York State. 

Prioritizing school wellness policy means supporting our kids physically, mentally, and emotionally: making sure students have nutritious food, nutrition education, physical activity, mental health care, and supportive school climates that they need to succeed in school.  Equipping the New York State Education Department with resources to support school districts in creating, implementing, and assessing strong, comprehensive local wellness policies is critical to making this happen.

Bronx Health REACH and Our Elected Officials

In December 2018 and January 2019, Bronx Health REACH staff held meetings with Senator Jose M. Serrano and his Chief of Staff George Damalas, Assemblymember Victor M. Pichardo and his Communications Coordinator Nicholas Peters, and Assemblymember Michael Benedetto and his Chief of Staff John Collazzi in their district offices. The meetings provided the elected officials with updates on Creating Healthy Schools & Communities Program implementation in the Bronx and information on the WELL Campaign (Wellness, Equity, and Learning Legislation), launched by the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education, and Policy at Teachers, College, Columbia University and supports school districts to create, implement, and assess strong, comprehensive local wellness policies.

Assemblyman Benedetto, the new Chair of the Education Committee in the New York State Assembly, has agreed to host a legislative Lunch and Learn for New York State legislators so they may learn about the status of school wellness policy in New York State, and the WELL Campaign. This event will be held on March 26 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

The meetings, including that with Assemblyman Pichardo, highlighted a concern that the New York State Education Department School Health Associate position has been vacant for the past 9 years. And, as a result New York State missed an opportunity to apply for a 5-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Improving Student Health and Academic Achievement through Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Management of Chronic Conditions in Schools” in 2018. The CDC made this grant only available to local education agencies such as state education departments. In prior years, CDC funding to provide schools with technical assistance for school wellness policy implementation had been available to state health departments. Without federal CDC funding, the status of support for school wellness policy implementation in New York State remains in question.

On Tuesday, January 29th, at the ‘City Hall in Your Borough Resource Fair in the Bronx,’ Bronx Health REACH Coalition member Sandra Jenkins, from Church of God of Prophecy, met with Mayor de Blasio and reminded him of his promise to meet with Bronx Health REACH to discuss the #Not62: The Campaign for a Healthy Bronx and the ask of making the Bronx a priority in all the city’s agencies. The Mayor promised to look into it. Charmaine Ruddock, Project Director, also spoke briefly to City Council member Vanessa L. Gibson about the promised meeting with the Mayor because it was at her sponsored town hall meeting last April where the Mayor had made that public commitment to meet with the Coalition.

Bronx Health REACH Testifies at City Council Hearings

Bronx Health REACH Director Charmaine Ruddock testified in support of the New York Health Act.


On December 6th, Bronx Health REACH Project Director Charmaine Ruddock provided testimony to the New York City Council in support of the New York Health Act. The New York City Council was voting to call on the New York State Legislature and Governor to pass the New York Health Act, that would guarantee publicly-funded healthcare for all New York State residents without deductibles, co-pays or out-of-network charges. Charmaine spoke on how the passing of the New York Health Act would benefit Bronx residents since the borough is currently not only the unhealthiest county in New York State, but has the largest percentage of uninsured adults (22%) and the largest percentage of adults going without needed medical care (12%). The New York Health Act would enable more Bronx residents to live healthier, longer lives.

The New York Health Act would also provide Bronx residents access to the same quality of healthcare others receive in other parts of NYC and would improve health outcomes for all residents. NY Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried and former NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Mary T. Bassett also testified before the Council, as did Dr. Bassett's mother, who is seated next to Charmaine in the photo above.

Moria Byrne-Zaaloff spoke in support of nutrition education.

On January 16th, the New York City Council held a hearing on the Food and Nutrition Education Reporting Bill. This Bill would require the New York City Department of Education to submit an annual report of food and nutrition education classes to the New York City Council.

Moria Byrne-Zaaloff, Bronx Health REACH’s Program Coordinator for Creating Healthy Schools and Communities testified on the lack of nutrition education in NYC public schools, its importance, and the anticipated impact the bill would have in improving the healthy eating of public school students.

Currently, there isn't any publicly available information on how many schools are actively implementing nutrition education to meet NYC health education requirements. With a reporting system in place, schools and school-based partners focused on nutrition education will have a better sense of gaps and barriers to providing nutrition education in NYC public schools.

Nutrition Education Advocates Educate City Council Members on the Importance of Nutrition Education in Public Schools

This post is written by Moria Byrne-Zaaloff, MPH, Program Coordinator for Creating Healthy Schools and Communities at Bronx Health REACH. 


The energy in the room was palpable as I entered the New York City Council hearing room surrounded by advocates, councilmember staff and a flock of media corralled in the corner. I was there to testify on behalf of Bronx Health REACH, alongside other advocates, teachers, parents and students from across the five boroughs on the importance of nutrition education in schools. The hearing was in response to the Nutrition and Education Reporting bill sponsored by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council Member Mark Treyger, Chair of the Education Committee and supported by many in the nutrition education community.

Currently, information on nutrition education programming in schools isn’t publically available. Bronx Health REACH and other organizations viewed this hearing as an opportunity to highlight the importance of nutrition education and the barriers to it in New York City public schools. The Bill would require the New York City Department of Education to submit an annual report of food and nutrition education classes, conducted by school teachers/staff or external partners in each New York City public school to the New York City Council. The report would account for the frequency and total minutes of instruction, number of students taught, total instruction time by teachers and outside organizations, and number of school teachers/staff who received training in each NYC public school.

Minutes before the hearing began advocates and the co-sponsors of the proposed legislation, Councilman Mark Treyger and Manhattan Borough President Gayle Brewer, gathered for a rally on the steps of City Hall declaring food and nutrition education essential to student health. Councilman Treyger spoke of the gaps in our current education system including a lack of professional development training. He cited the commissioner’s report from 2015 which showed that “over 90 percent of our educators teaching health and wellness are not even licensed to teach health.”

While this data may be remarkably different after the rollout of HealthEd Works, a promising pilot program of the DOE to bring nutrition education programming, professional development training, and resources to 500 public schools in the next few years, parents deserve to know whether their children are currently receiving the same educational programming as resource-rich public schools.

At the hearing, Councilmembers Mark Levine, Brad Lander, Andy King, and Debi Rose asked questions and spoke in support of the proposed legislation, but it was the voices of the students, teachers and advocates that were the most powerful. Maria Mohammed, a Bronx high school graduate, spoke about how students are not being fully educated about the harms of processed food. “What are we going to tell them 5 years from now? We are sorry that we failed you and need to do better for the next generation.” Pam Cook of Teacher’s College spoke on behalf of Meredith Hill, Assistant Principal of Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering who wrote, “When we educate students about what they put in their bodies, they gain power--the power to be educated consumers making healthy choices.”

As a public health professional working in NYC for the past couple of years, I spoke about the constant frustration and burn-out I have seen in the teachers working at our Bronx partner schools who face the challenges of not having enough time to fit nutrition education in the schedule for all students, vague guidelines from the NYC DOE regarding how many hours or lessons per semester should be dedicated to nutrition education in elementary and middle school, and insufficient professional development training in nutrition education. Working in neighborhoods with limited funding, capacity, training and resources leaves many of the energetic and self-motivated teachers ill-equipped to meet students’ needs for nutrition education.

Seeing the level of enthusiasm and commitment in the hearing room to ensure that all NYC public school children receive adequate nutrition education to equip them to make healthy food choices, reawakened the hope of a better future for NYC schoolchildren. On a separate note, seeing the civic process at work  made me feel grateful to live in a country where your voice can be heard.

Bronx Health REACH Welcomes Our New FoodCorps Member

We welcome Adriana Perez, our new FoodCorps member who began her service in September at PS443 & PS457. Adriana will dedicate a year of service to engaging students and teachers in creating a school wide culture of health through experiential learning in their school garden, cafeteria and classroom. She will also support the healthy snack policy implementation and spearhead PS443's garden renovation.

Adriana’s passion for all things food originated in the kitchen when she helped her mom bake for family events. Adriana graduated from Johnson & Wales University and was a pastry chef at Walt Disney World. She was drawn to the farmers' market circuit, renewing her belief that healthy and sustainable food should be available to all communities. She welcomes opportunities for all to learn about the sources of their food.

Thirteen Bronx Teachers Bring Healthy Eating to Third Grade

Can students discover healthy eating while learning about ancient Egypt or crafting a witty opinion piece? Bronx Health REACH proves that teachers can absolutely integrate nutrition education into core curriculum by using one simple tool — DESIGN for Teachers. Last fall, four third grade lead teachers received a train the trainer session in December 2017 in the DESIGN for Teachers model with the intention of training and implementing four nutrition education lessons into core curriculum across all third grade classrooms.

DESIGN for Teachers is a model, developed by Marissa Burgermaster, PhD, MAEd, Pamela Koch, EdD, RD, and Isobel Contento, PhD. This model shows teachers how to integrate nutrition and food literacy into lessons that will engage students in the classroom and fuel children's motivation to eat healthier and live a more active lifestyle.

Through calling for a grade-wide commitment to implement four lessons integrating nutrition education and core curriculum, teachers in all four participating schools found their students looking forward to learning and genuinely disappointed if they missed a class. Teachers said the experience is something that they would definitely replicate next year because it wasn’t difficult to implement.

“There wasn’t much changed from the original curriculum, we were just using different resources and activities to implement the lesson,” said Alvin Lisojo, a third grade teacher at PS69 Journey Prep.

More than 80 percent of teachers completed all four lessons with the guidance and support of their grade lead teacher. The keys to grade leaders’ success was 1) a commitment from all third grade teachers to be active participants in the project, 2) implementing an effective professional development training on DESIGN for Teachers model targeted to their fellow teachers and creating four lessons that all four or five third grade teachers could easily implement, and 3) following up with each teacher to ensure all four lessons were implemented.

What surprised and inspired the teachers was how much excitement the lessons ignited in their students. Suddenly, students were talking about healthy eating among themselves. After Ms. Dina Zapatta, a third grade teacher at PS114 began teaching the nutrition education lessons, students would enter class boasting that they brought a healthy snack today or that they didn’t bring any red or blue flavored sodas or sports drinks, what Dina refers to as “red or blue death juice.” Allison Palmer, a third grade teacher at PS6, reported that having her students take a pledge as a class drive the students to bring healthier snacks and bring water bottles to class and encourage their classmates to do likewise. Dina noticed an increase in students drinking more milk and eating more yogurt after her class took a healthy eating pledge.

In each school, all the third grade teachers worked as a team to choose which core curriculum lessons would be integrated into nutrition education lessons – each school truly making the project their own. At PS69, Alvin integrated a discussion about how to make healthier choices into a lesson about Egypt. The class ate Egyptian food and discussed how they could eat the food they love and be healthy by using portion control and making healthier versions of traditional recipes. Parents praised Alvin for offering these new lessons. They reported that their children were requesting to make healthier versions of their family’s favorite dishes at home as well as inspiring them to give them healthier snacks.

“The kids were having great discussions about food and what their families ate at home,” said Alvin. “Many of the students became very animated and excited about this topic, especially those who are English as Second Language students. This topic really brought them out of their shells.”

Dina’s third grade teachers chose to focus on the MyPlate model. She asked her students to illustrate what they ate the night before. Then, she posted the pictures around the room and encouraged the students to walk around the room and compare their meals and those of their fellow students to the MyPlate model. The most eye opening part of the exercise was seeing the challenges families face in accessing healthy, affordable food.

The teachers’ biggest challenge was finding grade-appropriate reading passages to teach nutrition education. In response, Bronx Health REACH is working with Teacher’s College to provide a solution for teachers. Despite these challenges, all four groups will continue to use the four nutrition education lessons with next year’s third grade class.


A big thank you to the third grade teachers who took the lead on this project in their schools: Jennifer Large (PS1X The Courtlandt School), Alvin Lisojo (PS69 The Journey Prep School), Allison Palmer (PS6 West Farm School), and Dina Zapatta (PS114 Luis Lorrens Torres School).

A Zest for Life and Learning: A FoodCorp Member Reflects on Her Year Cultivating an Environment of Wellness at the Family School

In September, 2017 I was both excited and nervous as I began my year of service as a FoodCorps member at The Family School in the Bronx. The reason for joining FoodCorps was to join the fight against food injustice. Since this was my first-time teaching at a school, I approached it with an open heart.

On the first day of school I was presented with my first challenge – scaffolding covered what used to be the school’s outdoor garden. But I persevered. With funding from Grow To Learn and the School’s Wellness Committee, I created two mobile gardens housed on wheeled carts that provided the 2nd,  4th and 5th grade students  the opportunity to grow and harvest their own herbs, pea shoots, lettuce, arugula and mesclun greens indoors. Using The Bronx Salad Toolkit for Schools, seed starter kits and a few grow lights, the students and I were able to bring an indoor mobile garden to life. The second graders learned about the life cycle of plants such as peas.

The students also learned how to make The Bronx Salad, which contains many of the same ingredients they recognized from their home kitchen tables. One student exclaimed “I love cilantro and mangoes! My mother always has them in the house.” The students really enjoyed seeing their plants growing, and even tasted fresh pea shoots they grew themselves. I loved seeing students that had been squeamish about planting and working in the dirt at the start of the school year blossom into little gardeners. One student, Isabella convinced her mother that they needed to start growing their own food, and now they have a window sill herb garden in their home.

Together with the support of the faculty, staff, Garden to Café and the students, I was able to make great strides in increasing student consumption of healthy foods and expose them to new fruits and vegetables in the cafeteria throughout the school year. First, I worked with Tonya Green, The Family School Dean, to recruit and train eight student ambassadors to serve their classmates fruits and vegetables from the salad bar and collect feedback regarding which foods or flavors students liked or disliked, and what they would like to try next. This empowered the ambassadors to make the salad more enticing by designing and posting signs above the salad bar. By doing this students were encouraged to create rainbow salads. I also made raspberry and other sweet dressings for the students to try each week. Our most popular dressing was a tangy thyme and honey vinaigrette.

The school also held five taste tests in the cafeteria. For the tastings, the Garden to Café staff and I prepared samples of roasted acorn squash with brown sugar, garlic hummus and winter apple slaw for the students to sample during lunch time. Student ambassadors carried trays of the samples around the cafeteria and encouraged fellow students to sample. As more tastings were held students were willing to try the new foods without having to be coaxed by the ambassadors.

After each tasting, students would line up to record their opinions on a dot survey board. They would stand in front and have serious debates about why certain foods were better than others. One student stated, “Everybody loves carrots. Not me. I believe the lettuce was good.” At the end of one of the tastings, my team of ambassadors and I looked around the cafeteria with satisfaction. They were glowing with pride, seeing that their fellow students were enjoying healthier food items rather than sweets. It was a win for our small, but mighty team. One of my students, Rajib, summed it up best, “Everybody’s fed, everybody’s happy.”

In pursuit of more school-wide change in the cafeteria, the Garden to Café team and I organized an alternative menu tasting event for parents of students attending PS443 and PS457. George Edwards, Director of the Garden to Café program/ SchoolFood and Holly Howwit, Garden to Café Coordinator, prepared and served brown, sugar glazed root vegetables and apple slaw. Many of the parents and children asked for seconds and were genuinely surprised that these healthy foods being served could taste so delicious. One parent exclaimed, “This tastes really good and it’s healthy! I would love it if my child and I could eat like this all the time.” When parents and teachers agreed that students should have more opportunities to eat plant-based foods, I made sure students had numerous opportunities to eat healthy, not only in the cafeteria during tastings, but also during my lessons in the classroom.

Inside the classroom, I taught healthy eating lessons to three jubilant second grade classes. I worked closely with classroom teachers to align hands-on activities with their Science, Math and English lessons. Whether the students were studying fractions using different types of seeds or learning about how plants absorb water using celery, water and food coloring, I made sure the students had fun. Often when I entered the classroom, the students would scream my name, run up to me and hug me, or break into applause. My plan clearly worked. The real reward was when my students could recall information from my lessons. They would share, “I ate my vegetables today, Ms. Angela” or “When are you coming to make a salad again?” Students always had many opportunities to eat healthy foods in my classes. Together we made veggie skewers, fruit parfaits and salads.
I also led the Green Team students in a special eight session class, ‘Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh,’ about the barriers to healthy foods in their neighborhood, and the various techniques marketers use to influence their food choices. Students learned about the difference between processed food and whole food, how to read food labels, the various techniques marketers use to influence their food choices.

During a visit to the bodega near their school, students had the chance to test their knowledge and were surprised to see how many unhealthy products had ads on their packaging targeted to kids. They were also surprised to see many unhealthy snacks positioned on the shelves at their eye level to catch their attention as they walked into the bodega. At the start of the eight session class each student signed a pledge to eat less junk food and sugary beverages. By the end of the one month course, there was a slight increase in students buying fruits and vegetables at bodegas near their school.

The Family school really accepted me as part of the school family. The relationships I made with teachers, staff and students and the experiences we had will stay with me forever. I am grateful to have had the chance to serve the children of this Morrisania neighborhood. Looking back to when I was a younger student myself attending PS 41, my school lunch barely had any vegetables or fruits, so improving the eating habits of the Family School students was a goal close to my heart. I’m happy I connected with so many kids and helped them enjoy and eat more fruits and vegetables. Creating a healthier school environment was the ultimate goal, but the moments that I shared with the teachers and students of the Family School was most important to me. Hopefully the students will remember me as “the salad girl,” as I will remember the students having a zest for life and learning.

Angela Doyle was a FoodCorps service member serving with Bronx Health REACH. She was partnered with The Family School in the Bronx, NY to integrate garden and nutrition lessons into classes, promote healthy food options in the cafeteria, and support a school wide culture of health. She is very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with The Family School, where teachers, administration, cafeteria staff, and students appreciate the importance of healthy bodies and healthy minds for learning and growing.

PS 333, IS 131 and PS 6 Awarded Bronx Wellness Champions Grants

PS333 was one of three Bronx schools awarded a Bronx Wellness Champion Grant.

Congratulations to PS 333-Longwood Academy of Discovery (in photo above), IS 131-The Albert Einstein School and PS 6-West Farms School on becoming this year’s Bronx Wellness Champions. This year Bronx Health REACH offered mini-grants to help schools make their nutrition and fitness projects possible. Through this grant, PS 333-Longwood Academy of Discovery launched a school-wide healthy snack initiative at their annual field day.  Students enjoyed whole grain granola bars, fruit and fresh water after a soccer game with their newly acquired soccer balls and pop-up soccer goals purchased with funding from the grant.

With their grant, IS 131-the Albert Einstein School built a green wall replete with basil, cilantro, spearmint and mixed greens in their vacant courtyard to increase healthy eating on campus. PS 6-West Farms School plans to use their grant to purchase portable gym equipment that can be used inside or outside the school to increase physical activity by 60 minutes a week. PS 6-West Farms School will receive their equipment this fall. As part of the grant requirements, the three schools completed a WELLSAT pre-assessment, a NYC Department of Education scorecard and created a wellness policy.

Why the Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh School Curriculum Matters

On June 12th PS36-Unionport School and Saba Quality Plus Deli & Grocery unveiled the Don't Stress, Eat Fresh Campaign at Saba Quality Plus Deli & Grocery.

This post was written by Elecia Faauiaso, an intern with the Bronx Health REACH Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program who worked on the Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh Curriculum as her Masters Practicum in Public Health at New York University. Elecia also served as an instructor last fall on a counter-marketing study with CS448-Soundview Academy of Culture and Scholarship. She will be graduating with a dual Master's degree in Public Health and Dietetics this fall.

As the project coordinator and intern for Bronx Health REACH’s Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program working on the Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh curriculum, I was proud to see this campaign launch at PS 294-Walton Avenue School, PS36-Unionport School, and PS443-The Family School in June. The Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh healthy bodega marketing campaign is a borough wide bodega marketing campaign launched last November by the Institute for Family Health's Bronx Health REACH, the Bodega Association and the Bronx Bodega Partners Workgroup to encourage Bronx residents to purchase healthier foods and beverages at 56 participating Bronx bodegas. During the past two weeks students from PS 294-Walton Avenue School, PS36-Unionport School, and PS443-The Family School in partnership with M&H Deli Grocery, Saba Quality Plus Deli & Grocery and La Solucion distributed samples of healthy foods sold in the bodegas and posted signage hightlighting the healthy food.

At the three Bronx schools, I provided on-going technical assistance to the teachers with the support of Moria Byrne-Zaaloff, Program Coordinator for the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program. I trained the teachers in the 8 week Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh curriculum, which focuses on: healthy eating, processed foods, food marketing and marketing campaign development. Over the 8 week course students learned about the barriers to healthy foods in their neighborhood and the various techniques marketers use to influence their food choices. The most eye-opening activity to me was when students learned how to read nutrition labels.

A PS36-Unionport parent enjoyed the fruit salad samples distributed by students from the school.

Students brought in their favorite snacks from their local bodega and were shocked to learn how unhealthy many snacks were once they understood the high sugar and salt content of each. One student expressed concern about the harmful effects of consuming an entire package of Takis on a daily basis. She said, “When I eat a bag by myself, I'm actually eating for 3 to 4 people. That’s a lot of calories for me!” After she shared this with me I found that through education and by providing young students with the necessary tools and skills to navigate their way through our complex food system gives them the power to be health conscious consumers.

Each school took a survey of their partner bodega to determine what healthy options were available in their neighborhood bodega and to think critically about how product placement, accessibility, convenience and price all affects the food choices they make every day. Angela Boyle, a FoodCorps member with PS443-The Family School, told me that her students felt “important and professional” doing the bodega surveys, and assessing their neighborhood bodegas “gave them power.” I found it inspiring to see the students take action to change their own food environment. I believe where they eat, sleep, learn, play, and shop should support their choices in living a healthy lifestyle.

The bodega owners showed a lot of enthusiasm and were eager to participate in the Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh campaign. Carlos, a bodega worker at La Solucion shared, “I would much rather see students purchasing healthy smoothies and juices. It is important for them to learn healthy eating habits when they are young, so they do not get sick when they are older.” Students and teachers from PS443-The Family School hope to drive more customers seeking smoothies to La Solucion by posting the colorful posters and coordinating healthy food demos.

Why do we need to focus on these matters? We have so much working against us. The battle between the cheap and easy availability of processed foods versus the shortage of healthy foods in local bodegas; the misleading health claims and puzzling nutrition labels; packaged and canned goods that have colorful cartoon characters and celebrities on their labels. A lot of this subconsciously tricks and confuses the minds of the youth, and even adults as well, to make unhealthy choices. So what do we do to combat the manipulation and barriers? Engaging students in countering unhealthy marketing, reading food labels, and asking their local stores to sell healthy foods will certainly go a long way.

If you live near La Solucion (180 McCellan Street), MH Deli Grocery (1405 Walton Avenue) or Saba Quality Plus Deli & Grocery (1183 Castle Hill Avenue), go in and buy the fruit salad or smoothies promoted by the students.

Tremont United Methodist Church Gets A Taste of African Heritage

This post was written by Denise Gourdine, a Health Coordinator at Tremont United Methodist Church.

My church, Tremont United Methodist Church (TUMC) is participating in Bronx Health REACH’s Creating Healthy Schools & Communities (CHSC) program. Our church is one of several in the Bronx involved in CHSC’s worksite wellness initiative which provides workshops on nutrition and organizes fitness classes for church staff and their congregations. In March and April 2018, TUMC organized a 6-session workshop series called, ‘A Taste of African Heritage,’ from Oldways, a nonprofit food and nutrition education organization.

Oldways’ mission is to guide people to good health through their heritage, using practical and positive programs grounded in science and tradition. A Taste of African Heritage introduces people to traditional healthy foods and flavors of Africa and the African Diaspora and celebrates the traditional eating patterns of African-American ancestors from Africa, South America, the Caribbean and the American South. The curriculum introduces participants to the vibrant history, culture, and nutrition of African heritage foods, and includes a guide on easily adapting African heritage eating patterns to everyday living.

Oldways provided training materials, lessons and tips on how to structure the program. At the first and last class, each participant had their weight, blood pressure and waist measured. Oldways provided a scale, portable blood pressure monitor and tape measure.

During the sessions, as participants, we had an opportunity to share information about cooking practices in our respective families and communities, and to discuss personal health issues related to eating and lifestyle. We were able to learn about and use the African Heritage Diet Pyramid  to prepare nutritious easy meals. At least two meals were prepared in the kitchen during each session, and everyone shared and tasted the meals. We received information about the health benefits of all the prepared meals  and how to incorporate more plant-based items, herbs/spices etc. into our own meal preparation  for ourselves and our families.
                         

One thing we all  enjoyed were the homework assignments given each week. Most assignments involved preparing a meal using some of the ingredients that were used in that week’s cooking session. On several occasions we learned about a new herb/spice/bean or tuber (a specialized storage stem of certain seed plants) that we had never eaten. It was particularly exciting trying to find some of the unfamiliar food items at our local supermarket, produce store or farmers’ market.

Everyone agreed to make a conscious effort to incorporate the things we learned during the six sessions to improve our overall eating habits, health and well-being. Judging from the feedback, the program was a success.Many in the group wanted to extend it. At TUMC we are committed to sustaining this program and all other programs that will aid church members and others to achieve overall  wellness. Looking ahead, we plan to utilize the Taste of African Heritage Diet Pyramid in our Manna House program, a free monthly feeding and clothing ministry for the community and in the meals  for children attending our afterschool program. You can learn more about this program as well as “A Children’s Taste of African Heritage” (for ages 8-12 and caregivers) and “A Taste of Latin American Heritage” by visiting here.

If your faith based organization in interested in participating in the Oldways program, contact Kelly Moltzen at kmoltzen@institute.org or 212-633-0800 x 1328.