Bronx Health REACH e-blast: May 18, 2011

Discovery High School Farmers Market – May 20^th

Discovery High School is hosting a farmers market and edible plant sale from 8 am to 12 pm at its campus (2780 Reservoir Ave, Bronx, NY) on Friday, May 20^th. The event is open to the public and features teach-ins, tasting tables, and activities for students of all ages. The Discovery High School farmers market is the only student-run, profitable farmer's market in all of NYC featuring fresh veggies and herbs grown indoors. 

Community Health Education Day – May 20^th

Bronx Health Link and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. present the borough’s largest annual health fair, with screenings, counseling, and educational services for all ages. The event will take place on Friday, May 20^th from 11 am to 3 pm at the Bronx County Building at 851 Grand Concourse at 161^st Street. Admission to the health fair is FREE.

Hunts Point Hustle 5K Walk/Run – May 21^st

Sustainable South Bronx is hosting the 5^th annual Hunts Point Hustle 5K Walk/Run on Saturday, May 21^st at Hunts Point Riverside Park, Lafayette Avenue between Edgewater Road and the Bronx River. The walk/run will start at 9 am and runners and walkers of all ages are invited to participate. There will also be a 100 yard dash for children, awards for the top three female and male participants in each age category, and t-shirt and goodie bag giveaways. To register, donate, or fundraise go to http://www.ssbx.org/ssbxblog/. Registration will also take place the morning of the Hustle.

Agape Love Christian Center Community Health Day – May 21^st

The Agape Love Christian Center, a Bronx Health REACH Faith-Based Outreach Initiative member, is hosting an all-day health fair on Saturday, May 21^st at 1023 Allerton Avenue in the Bronx. The fair will take place between 10 am and 4 pm and will include FREE health screenings and information, including mammography, blood pressure, and cholesterol checks. For more information and contact details, see the attached flier.

Active Design Family Day – May 21^st, June 11^th, & June 18^th

The Center for Architecture Foundation (CFAF) and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Built Environment Program have organized youth oriented programs that teach young people about Active Design and the relationship between the design of their communities and their health. These FREE pilot workshops will allow families to work as a design team to redesign a city block to create a space where activities such as walking, biking, outdoor play, and using public transportation are encouraged. The first workshop will take place on Saturday, May 21^st from 11 am to 1 pm at North Brooklyn YMCA, 570 Jamaica Ave, Brooklyn. 

NYC Nutrition Education Network General Meeting – May 25^th

The NYC Nutrition Education Network is hosting its final meeting of the year on the impact of city and statewide nutrition policies. The meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 25^thfrom 9 am to 12 pm at The New School (Wollman Hall, 65 W. 11^th Street, 5^th Floor) and will feature speakers from the NYS and NYC Departments of Health. RSVP to nycnenadmin@gmail.com. For non-NYCNEN members, there is a $5 fee to attend the meeting.

World No Tobacco Day NYC Youth Rally – May 31^st

The NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City is organizing a Youth Rally for Middle and High School students to protest tobacco marketing toward youth in stores. The rally will take place between 2:30 pm and 4 pm at Union Square Park on Tuesday, May 31^st. There will be representatives from the Coalition from all five boroughs. 

Shape Up NYC Fitness Classes at St. Mary’s Recreation Center – every Friday

St. Mary’s Recreation Center is hosting FREE Feldenkrais fitness classes through Shape Up NYC every Friday from 9 am to 10 am. Feldenkrais is a series of slow and gentle movements designed to enhance awareness of how your body moves and improves posture and coordination. The weekly classes will take place at the Center at 450 St. Ann’s Avenue in the Bronx and are open to the public. For  more information, contact Shawn James at Shawn.James@parks.nyc.gov.    

Entertainment for Development Community Event – June 11^th

The New Covenant Community Development Corporation is hosting an event to promote housing, resource opportunities, and economic empowerment in the Bronx. The event will take place at Dominion Cathedral at 1175 Boston Road from 3:30 pm to 6 pm on Saturday, June 11^th. The event will include Educational Scholarship Awards, free health screenings, and special music and dance performances. 

Peace Love Café courses – ongoing

The Peace Love Café located at 617 Melrose Ave between 151^st and 152^nd streets in the Bronx holds ongoing Food Sustainability and Music Appreciation group programs at its healthy food eatery. As the first health food and internet café in the South Bronx, Peace Love Café encourages student, church, and community groups to sign up for 90 minute courses on Food Sustainability ($15 per attendee) and Music Appreciation ($10 per attendee). To reserve a class for your group, call 347-577-6397 or email peacelovecafe@gmail.com.

Envision 2011: Climate Change & Environmental Justice - June 16-18

The New York Theological Seminary is hosting a three-day conference on the religious response to caring for earth. “Caring for the Community of Creation: Climate Change & Environmental Justice” will be held at the Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive. Registration before May 27^th is $40 per person and after will be $50 per person. For more information on the conference, speakers, and how to register, visit http://www.nyts.edu/envision/ or contact Janet Martin at janethtmartin@gmail.com or 914.329.6330.

Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook becomes President Obama’s Religious Freedom Ambassador

Reverend Cook, one of the pastors in Bronx Health REACH’s Faith-Based Outreach Initiative, was named as Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, a State Department post, by President Obama. Rev. Cook grew up in Wakefield and founded the Bronx Christian Fellowship Baptist Church. She later became the NYPD’s first woman and first African-American chaplain. In her new role, Rev. Cook will report directly to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton and advise on religion abroad and monitor religious persecution. To learn more about Rev. Cook and her new position, please read this article from the New York Daily News.

Bronx Health REACH e-blast: May 4, 2011

The Bronx Forum: The Impact of Healthcare Reform on the Bronx – May 6th
CAUSE-NY and Hostos Community College is hosting a forum on how the Affordable Care Act will impact Bronx residents. Representatives from U.S. Dept of Health, Bronx Health Link, NYS Insurance Dept. and other community groups will be in attendance. The program will take place from 9 am to 12:30 pm on May 6th at Hostos Community College at 120 E. 149th St. in the Bronx. The registration fee is $20 and group discounts are available.


Teen Battle Chef Invitational – May 12th
FamilyCook Productions is holding its first benefit at the New York Institute of Technology’s auditorium on Broadway. The event kicks off at 6:30 pm with food prepared by NYC’s top chefs and the invitational will showcase the culinary talents and skills of high school students in FamilyCook programs across the Northeast. Tickets are on sale and start at $50 per person – the proceeds will benefit FamilyCook and help foster new culinary programs in schools and community centers.


The Faith and Earth Summit – May 13th
Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice and The Riverside Church of New York have designed a full day of workshops on May 13th from 9 am to 5 pm. Topics will include Greening Your Congregation, Practical Steps for Energy and Cost Saving, and Mobilizing Youth Groups. The summit will be held at Riverside Church (490 Riverside Drive). To register, go to: http://tinyurl.com/faithandearth or contact Sara Jones at sjones@nyfaithjustice.org or 212.870.1254.


New York Road Runners Youth Jamboree – May 15th
New York Road Runners invites kids ages 4 to 15 to join them for a fun and FREE day of running, jumping, and throwing at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island between 7:45 am and 4 pm. There is no cost of admission for youth or adults and every child who participates will receive a Youth Jamboree t-shirt and event ribbons. Boys and girls 5-10 years old will compete in the morning and events for youth 11-15 years old will take place in the afternoon. There will be a 55-meter race for 4-year-olds at 12:30 p.m. For more information on the Youth Jamboree or to download the registration forms and schedule, please go to www.nyrrf.org, e-mail jamboree@nyrr.org, or call 646.758.9675.


Walk with a Doctor – May 17th
The Committee for Interns and Residents is sponsoring an obesity themed walk-a-thon and health fair on Tuesday, May 17th between 4 pm and 7 pm at 2330 Eastchester Road in the Bronx. This is an opportunity to build relationships with healthcare providers and doctors and there will also be free giveaways, health screenings, and activities. Please contact Nagiane Lacka at nlacka@cirseiu.org for more information.


Fit City 6th Annual Conference – May 17th
The NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene and the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter is holding its 6th annual Fit City conference that will look at ways to address the childhood obesity epidemic through transformations in the built environment. This conference will bring together architects, planners, designers, developers, and public health professionals to address how building design and policy decisions can improve health outcomes in communities and help prevent chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and asthma. The full day event will take place at the Center for Architecture at 536 LaGuardia Place. Advance registration is required, please go to http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=2523 to register and for the full schedule.

American Community Gardening Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fighting Obesity Grant – due May 30th
ACGA and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are offering four $250 grants to programs that are fighting childhood obesity through their gardening program. The applicant is to submit a news article of three hundred words or less about what they are doing in their school/community garden to combat childhood obesity (can include up to three photos). The articles are due May 30th and will be published in the 2011 ACGA Greening Review. Please send or email articles to Bobby L. Wilson 1757 Washington Rd East Point, Georgia 30344 or bobbyw@uga.edu.


New York City smoking ban for parks and beaches goes into effect May 23
The smoking ban passed by the New York City Council in February will go into effect on May 23, prohibiting smoking in New York City parks, beaches and playgrounds. The ban will cover 1,400 parks and 14 miles of beaches citywide. Fines for smoking in these areas will start at $50.

Join Bronx Health REACH for World No Tobacco Day on May 31
Bronx Health REACH has been working with the Bronx Smoke-Free Partnership in an effort to curtail the aggressive tobacco marketing to youth taking place in Bronx neighborhoods through signage and product placement in convenience stores. Read more about our recent activities here. Also, we invite all Bronx youth to take part in the World No Tobacco Day press conference and rally on Tuesday, May 31, at 3pm in Union Square Park in Manhattan. There, they can make their voices heard and tell Big Tobacco they have had enough.


New York 2 New Orleans
New York 2 New Orleans (NY2NO) is a youth-led non-for-profit that creates meaningful service-learning opportunities for NYC high school students in both New Orleans and New York. This summer NY2NO is launching its second consecutive "Food Justice Summer," that will include up to 5 trips to New Orleans, 5 New York based service-learning initiatives, as well as two summer sessions of their programs “Growing Youth Organizers', and the “Community Action Project”. The trips are still being planned but if interested please contact Alex Goldman at 917-656-1558.


Volunteer with City Harvest
City Harvest is looking for a long-term (4 month) volunteer to assist low-income residents in the South Bronx in accessing healthy seasonal food options as part of its Healthy Neighborhoods programming. City Harvest is New York’s only food rescue organization and is looking for a student, community resident, or anyone looking to gain some experience in the food systems change field to start in June. Please contact Tatiana Orlov at torlov@cityharvest.org if interested in applying.


NYC Green Cart Photo Exhibit - through July 10
The Museum of the City of New York is displaying a photo exhibit titled “Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Cart Program” that documents the Green Carts throughout NYC neighborhoods. The resulting photographs, in styles ranging from portraiture to landscape to street photography, capture not only the carts themselves, but also the stories of the vendors, customers, and their communities. The exhibit is running through July 10.

Tobacco Marketing to Youth in the Bronx

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), nearly 4,000 youth under age 18 try their first cigarette each day in the United States and an additional 1,000 become daily smokers. In the Bronx, 3,000 public high school students are current smokers (NYC Department of Health, 2009) and a third of them are likely to die prematurely from the effects of cigarette smoking, based on statewide data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tobacco companies market heavily to youth with the goal of finding and securing “replacement smokers.” The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids notes that tobacco industry internal documents identify children as young as 11 years old as a “key market.” A newly published FDA report indicates that 80% of black and 50% of Hispanic teens smoke menthol cigarettes such as Newport. This is particularly relevant to the Bronx, which is 91% black and Hispanic, according to the 2010 census. According to a report published this year by the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC), menthol cigarettes reinforce smoking behavior through their cooling “throat grab”, which reduces the aversion to nicotine among new smokers, thus promoting continued use leading to addiction. One manufacturer of a menthol-containing brand that is extremely popular among black and Hispanic teens, notes: “[T]he base of our business is the high school student.”

Although cigarette companies claim that they have discontinued intentional marketing to youth through targeted ads and promotional items, they have found another powerful venue for the promotion and sale of their products—the local neighborhood store. The corner store is a favored stop off point for youth on their way to and from school. A recent Bronx community mapping survey showed that 85% of these establishments are located within a five block radius of a school. Cigarette and spit-tobacco companies continue to advertise heavily at these stores with large ads and signs clearly visible from the outside.

On June 22, 2010, the FDA issued a new ruling designed to limit the effect of tobacco advertising on youth.

Among other things, the rule:

• Prohibits the sale of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to people younger than 18,
• Prohibits the sale of cigarette packages with less than 20 cigarettes,
• Prohibits distribution of free samples of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, and
• Prohibits gifts or other items in exchange for buying cigarettes or smokeless tobacco products.

To ensure compliance, the FDA has promised to conduct unannounced inspections of local retail establishments and to impose “enforcement action,” which could include warning letters, civil money penalties, and orders prohibiting the future sale of tobacco products.

While these provisions are important, they do not address the key issue of tobacco signage in local neighborhood stores. In the Bronx, this is a major issue, due to their proximity to schools, and the tendency of many to violate the FDA ruling by selling small quantities of cigarettes and other tobacco products to youth, and failure to verify their age at the time of sale.

What can communities do? Bronx Health REACH (BHR) has spent the last few months as a community contractor with the Bronx Smoke-Free partnership under a grant funded by the New York City Department of Health. We have met with local members of the Assembly, Senate and City Council to encourage their continued advocacy and support of smoking prevention and cessation efforts in the Bronx, which has one of the city’s highest overall smoking rates and highest pediatric asthma hospitalization rate. In addition, we have met with Community Boards 3 and 5, representatives from our key target schools in Districts 7 and 9, and members of our Faith-Based Outreach Coalition to inform and sensitize them to the issue of youth-focused tobacco marketing in the local retail market.

Bronx Health REACH is currently working with eight schools under the New York State Department of Health-funded HEA+LTHY Schools NY program to bolster school wellness policies focusing on nutrition, physical fitness and tobacco prevention. It has also encouraged its faith-based coalition to actively engage their youth groups in tobacco prevention advocacy, since youth are the target of tobacco marketing efforts. Several youth groups in member churches have already been sensitized to the importance of healthy eating through participation in the God’s Health Squad program, a multi-unit participatory curriculum that covers key concepts related to nutrition, fitness, good health and positive body image. REACH staff and members of the Bronx Smoke-Free Partnership will work with these same youth groups in targeting local retailers to encourage them to remove tobacco signage outside their stores and reduce tobacco product visibility inside.

Finally, Bronx Health REACH invites all Bronx youth to join the Bronx Smoke-Free Partnership on World No Tobacco Day, Tuesday, May 31, 2011, at Union Square Park in Manhattan at 3 pm for a rally and press conference. There, they can tell Big Tobacco that they've had enough of the aggressive marketing designed to get them hooked on cigarettes.