Parents from Three Partner Schools Participate in Farmer’s Market Tours

Bronx Health REACH intern Elecia Faaiuaso (left) speaking with attendees of a farmers market tour.


This post was written by Bronx Health REACH intern Elecia Faaiuaso.

This fall, Bronx Health REACH gave parents of students from Bronx East Academy, Bronx Charter School of the Arts, and Hyde Leadership Charter School the chance to pick fresh fruits and vegetables without ever leaving the Bronx. Bronx Health REACH staff hosted three farmers’ market tours for 22 parents residing in District 8. Within minutes of arriving in the park, alive with fall foliage, parents saw the bountiful produce stands and lit up with excitement ready to dig in! Parents walked over to further investigate the inviting smells of honey crisp apples and bouquets of peppery arugula. The journey for better health had begun before the tour even started.

The farmers’ market tour included both nutrition information followed by time to shop in the market. Farmers’ market tours make fresh food more accessible and are a great way to provide instantaneous opportunities for healthy eating with new recipe ideas to cook nutritious meals for the participants’ families. Parents who participated received $10 worth of Health Bucks — $2 coupons used to purchase fruits and vegetables at farmers markets. Health Bucks were provided by Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr.’s office, who secured $22,000 worth of Health Bucks for his constituents in this year’s budget. Thank you Council Member Salamanca for supporting these efforts in your district!

Despite the cool, brisk air in the park, parents enthusiastically participated in a rich discussion about the benefits of farmers’ markets, the variety of fresh fruits and vegetables available, and the affordable prices. Staff also noted the importance of maintaining a healthy, fiber-rich diet with fruits and vegetables.  “It keeps everything moving along thus cleaning your system!” exclaimed the staff member. At the end, parents were given informational material, including a My Plate Planner, a guide for harvest times for vegetables and fruits, a list of starchy versus non-starchy vegetables, and tips for getting children to eat more fruits and vegetables. After receiving the tips and materials, parents were eager to share their own personal experiences, cooking methods, and food storage advice. One parent shared a unique way to preserve “sofrito” made with fresh herbs — freezing it in ice cube trays. Staff ended the discussion session by thanking the parents for attending and saying how helpful it is to hear cooking tips and food shopping experiences from parents, as they hold the power in the kitchen and determine what the family eats.

After the discussion, parents were encouraged to speak to the farmers about the produce being sold and to try fruits or vegetables they may not have eaten before. With Health Bucks in hand and excitement on their faces, shopping for healthy produce commenced!  Walking through the tents, parents marveled at the affordable prices and were thrilled to be able to buy unfamiliar produce such as acorn squash and familiar items like Bosc pears. Many of the parents on the tour left the market with 3 to 4 bags of fruits and vegetables!

At the end of the tour, Bronx Health REACH had parents share their shopping experience at the farmers’ market. One parent expressed her appreciation for the local farmers and their commitment to “come to the city to provide us with fresh produce in [their] area”. They all agreed that the market was very clean, and the vendors were friendly and provided fresh, affordable produce. The parents would like to see Bronx Health REACH provide more tours so that others could “learn and enjoy” these farmers’ markets as much as they did. One parent commented that she would always pass by the farmers’ market while riding the bus, and even though she wanted to stop and check it out, she never had the money to do so. She pointed out that the Health Bucks helped make it easier for her to purchase fresh produce from the farmers’ market and eat healthy. Bronx Health REACH hopes to arrange additional farmers’ market tours for parents in the spring of 2018 when farmers’ markets reopen.

Visit the GrowNYC website to stay up-to-date on events and the farmers’ market schedule.

MTA Board Votes to Ban Alcohol Ads on Subways, Buses and Trains

The Bronx Health REACH coalition celebrates Building Alcohol Ad-Free Transit’s (BAAFT) recent victory - the October 25th MTA vote to ban alcohol ads on subways, buses and trains. During the September 27th MTA Board meeting with BAAFT members in attendance, one of the MTA Board members made a motion to vote on BAAFT's proposal to amend the advertising policy to eliminate alcohol ads, but another MTA Board member countered that the MTA Board would need more information and delayed the vote. Thanks to the efforts of BAAFT and the Bronx Health REACH coalition members who gathered petition signatures, held rallies, and appeared at various MTA public hearings, the MTA voted in favor of banning all alcohol ads from the NYC transit system. This victory helps to assure that, at least in the transit system, New York City children will not be exposed to alcohol ads.

Office of Minority Health and Newman's Own Foundation Award Grants

The Fresh Food Box at the Institute for Family Health's Stevenson center.

The Institute for Family Health/Bronx Health REACH has been awarded funding by the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the Healthy Families, Healthy Children initiative in 22 Bronx churches. Funding by the OMH will enable Bronx Health REACH to launch an effort to help prevent and reduce obesity among children and adolescents in African American and Latino churches, several of whom are part of the 22 Bronx partner churches in the Bronx Health REACH Coalition. This program builds on Bronx Health REACH’s successful and popular faith-based, Fine, Fit and Fabulous, evidence-based program for adults which teaches nutrition and fitness utilizing faith based values, a group discussion format, and peer support in goal setting and achievement.

For the third year in a row, Newman's Own Foundation has awarded Bronx Health REACH with a grant to increase healthy eating in the South Bronx through nutrition education and food access initiatives. Funding will support healthy shopping tours and cooking demonstrations for patients participating in the Vegetable and Fruit Prescription program at the Institute’s health centers, provide technical support to bodega owners participating in the Healthy Bodega Program, and promote the Fresh Food Box program at the Institute's Stevenson Family Health Center.

Faith Based Partners Lead Voter Registration Drives

With help from Bronx Health REACH's faith based partner churches, Deacon Dorothy Faison of Cosmopolitan Church of the Lord Jesus and Royal Eason of Friendly Baptist Church, more Bronx residents have become registered voters. Deacon Faison, along with members of Cosmopolitan Church (Pastor Robert L. Foley Sr., Deacon Palmer, Deacon Rose and Sister Robinson) led three voter registration drives from July to September. When they positioned themselves outside the Fordham Road 4 train station, most of the people they approached were already registered to vote, but many knew others that were not registered to vote and took the forms to give to them. Deacon Faison stated that with the help of one Spanish speaking parishioner, they were able to reach more people and distributed over 150 voter registration forms.

Royal Eason, a member of Friendly Baptist Church led a voter registration drive by himself in the Soundview Park area and at a neighborhood shopping mall. He distributed over 200 voter registration forms and was able to get those that were not registered to vote to fill out the forms right there, which he then dropped off at a Post Office near his home. Why did he go out and register voters? "I got tired of hearing people talk about how they are disgusted with all the bad things happening in their neighborhood. I would let those that were not registered to vote know that it was their duty to vote, and if they didn't vote they didn't get to say anything about how bad things are. A lot of people don't realize the power of what voting can do, and what you can and cannot get unless you vote."

Bronx City Council Members Increase Health Bucks Allocation

Bronx residents shopping at Bronx farmers' markets had the opportunity to purchase more fruits and vegetables thanks to City Council Members Vanessa L. Gibson, Fernando Cabrera, Ritchie Torres and Rafael Salamanca who, from their respective budgets, collectively allocated $43,000 towards Health Bucks. Developed and distributed by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Health Bucks are paper vouchers worth $2 each that shoppers use to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets. Bronx Health REACH thanks them all. Because of their funding so many more Bronx residents were able to purchase fresh produce from farmers’ markets including parents from several public schools working with Bronx Health REACH’s Creating Healthy Schools and Communities Initiative.

CDC Visits Bronx Health REACH and Partner Sites to Assess the Impact of the Three Year REACH Funding

Janelle K. Gardner, Project Officer and Public Health Advisor for 

the CDC, (fourth from the left), with staff from Bronx Health REACH and 

the Institute for Family Health Mt. Hope Family Practice Health Center.

Janelle K. Gardner, Project Officer and Public Health Advisor for the CDC made a site visit to Bronx Health REACH in September. Bronx Health REACH staff and partners provided an update on the work done to date for the CDC REACH grant awarded in 2014 to increase access to healthy food and physical activity. During the first half of the site visit, the Bronx Health REACH staff and partners from Transportation Alternatives, Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education, Mainland Media, Mount Zion CME Church, Cosmopolitan Church of the Lord Jesus, and Holy Spirit Church presented on the various healthy eating and active living initiatives.

The afternoon half of the site visit included visiting several Bronx locations where initiatives have been implemented. These included a visit to the Institute for Family Health Mt. Hope Family Practice Health Center where Bronx Health REACH has worked with the staff to implement a Vegetable and Fruit Prescription program for obese patients. Ms. Gardner met and spoke with Mt. Hope staff about the implementation of the program. There were visits to two restaurants (Delmy Food Deli and Mexicocina), and to Fine Fair Supermarket, all of which are selling The Bronx Salad. The final visit of the afternoon was at the Bodega Association where Ms. Gardner met with the leaders of the Association and Julia Mair from the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, Inc. (HITN), to discuss the work being done on the Healthy Bodega Initiative.

Bronx Health REACH thanks all our partners who participated in that successful CDC site visit. Ms. Gardner spoke glowingly of the impact of the work and especially of the partners involvement.

Symposium Provides Forum for Community Based Organizations to Showcase Their Work

On September 27th Bronx Health REACH, along with the Center for the Study of Asian American Health at NYU School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health, and Bronx Community Health Network, all grantees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant; and the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, a CDC Partnership to Improve Community Health (PICH) grantee hosted a symposium, “Community Transformation through Partnerships.” Over 150 people attended the forum that provided community based organizations such as Transportation Alternatives, Casita Maria and others to share strategies and initiatives designed and implemented to create opportunities for healthy living in communities with significant rates of racial and ethnic health disparities.

Dr. Ruth Petersen, Director for the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, 

and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Opening the symposium was Dr. Ruth Petersen, Director for the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Petersen spoke about the REACH program improving the health of many Americans by providing 2 million people greater opportunities for choosing healthy foods and beverages, and 600,000 people with increased opportunities to be physically active as a result of environmental and policy improvements. Richard Hamburg from Trust for America’s Health and Dr. Susan Beane from Healthfirst were keynote speakers. Mr. Hamburg noted that the best long term investment is increasing CDC funding to programs such as REACH as doing so has been shown to improve the health and well-being of many communities. Dr. Beane discussed Healthfirst's efforts to merge health and social services to create and support a "Healthy Village" system of healthcare.

Gail Heidel, Associate Director of Creative Arts Programs at Casita Maria.

Bronx Health REACH partners were featured on two panels. On the Community Leadership and Engagement panel Erwin Figueroa, Bronx organizer for Transportation Alternatives spoke about the work of transforming the Grand Concourse into a Complete Street. And, on the Evaluation and Storytelling panel, Gail Heidel, Associate Director of Creative Arts Programs at Casita Maria, gave an overview of their projects painting murals on playgrounds in the South Bronx to encourage more outdoor physical activity. She also spoke about engaging residents to be active participants in the Bronx campaign to become ‘The World’s Strongest Borough’ utilizing the ‘Mobile Pull-Up Bar of Power.’

Charmaine Ruddock, (left) Project Director at Bronx Health REACH.

The final panel of the day was a unique conversation with funders and grantees discussing, from their respective perspectives, the expectations and efforts of each when trying to effect long term sustainable changes in communities disproportionately experiencing racial and ethnic health disparities. The panelists were Max Winer from New York University, Sarah Oltmans from Robin Hood Foundation, Nupur Chaudhury from the New York State Health Foundation, Linda Lee from Korean Community Services and Bronx Health REACH's Charmaine Ruddock. Charmaine focused her remarks on the importance of getting buy in from the community. "You can't have folks helicopter into the community and helicopter out; there has to be a commitment to the community."

School Aides Conquer Active Recess with Fit4Life Structured Play Training

Starting off with heart-pumping exercise, hip hop music and a lot of high-fives, a Bronx Health REACH sponsored physical activity training reminded 20 schools aides and 2 physical education teachers how much fun physical activity can be. By the end of the three hour training held on September 19th at PS443, aides were laughing and fully engaged in Fit4Life’s Play With Purpose interactive program.

Fit4Life Executive Director, Maurelhena Walles who facilitated the class, reminded the aides, “If you look like you are having fun, the students will too.”

Bronx Health REACH coordinated the Physical Activity for School Aides training at the suggestion of the District 9 Superintendent's Office who saw a need for school aide training in physical activity. Bronx Health REACH chose partner, Fit4life, a nonprofit organization that provides teachers and school staff with the tools to bring active play, character development, and healthy competition back into the classroom and onto the school playground, to run the training.

During the three hour training, Ms. Walles taught aides how to structure a class, about the gross motor skills of K-1 vs 4-5th graders, and what progressive learning looks like in an active setting. Using the Play with Purpose model, Ms. Walles taught the aides approaches to traditional and non-traditional sports, dance, fitness and movement-based programming that focuses on boosting a youth's self-confidence, maximizing the amount of time one moves, minimizing competition, encouraging sportsmanship and promoting a lifetime of activity. 

Ms. Walles pointed out that, “Teacher Aides play a significant role in the education of a child. To empower them with tools on not just what to do in the class, but rather why they are teaching a particular game or activity and how to teach is powerful. Once someone understands and owns the fact that they do indeed play a role in the education of children. Once a person understands that (active) learning, team-building, leadership and communication takes place during Structured Recess, the perspective changes.” School aide Nancy Vega added, “I had a lot of fun at the training and the techniques we learned will be very useful at recess.”

Bronx Health REACH coordinates professional development trainings in physical activity and nutrition education throughout the year as part of the services they provide to Bronx schools in education districts 7, 8, 9 and 12. If your school is interested in district-wide training in nutrition education, physical activity, competitive food marketing/ guidelines,  school wellness for teachers, staff and parents, parent engagement support or training in any of our five wellness toolkits, Email Moria Byrne-Zaaloff, Program Coordinator for Creating Healthy Schools and Communities at Bronx Health REACH or call (212) 633-0800 x 1287.

NY Watershed Takeaways for Health

New York City water is high quality and safe to drink. Careful steps are taken through the process of collecting, testing and transporting the water to your home. 

This post was written by Bronx Health REACH staff members Kelly Moltzen and Emily Oppenheimer.

In September 2017, we toured the Croton region of the watershed with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). In NYC, water is collected from two main regions: (1) Catskill Delaware and (2) the Croton System. Since its creation through the present, the system has been committed to transporting high quality water.

Water is essential for health and cognition, yet water intake among children and adults is below the recommended levels nationally. The alternative to water is often sugar-sweetened beverages, which are strongly linked to obesity. Bronx Health REACH has taken many steps to promote water as the healthiest alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages.


Throughout the tour, we were impressed by the steps taken to ensure high water quality. The DEP uses the natural ecology of the land to manage the system:  trees and other forest plants naturally filter the water. The DEP is also growing new forests to further the natural filtration process. The DEP approaches new forests with resiliency planning, by planting new trees that are acclimated to warmer regions. NYC uses a pure, natural water source, and over 90% of the water does not need to be filtered. There are only three other cities in the US that have water sources that don’t need filtration, which include Boston, Seattle and San Francisco. All water goes through quality testing before being delivered to NYC. The water is clean and safe: UV rays are used to stop the replication of microorganisms in the water.

The NYC watershed system was created in the 1840’s to ensure safe and clean water would be accessible to all people. Prior to the creation of the watershed system, unsafe water led to infectious diseases like cholera. Construction began in 1837 on the Old Croton Aqueduct, which was led by immigrant labor. Many people in the region lost their homes to make way to build the new infrastructure. In NYC we owe our gratitude to those who lived in upstate New York during this time and sacrificed their homes for our water. This system ran south to the Highbridge in the Bronx, and helped to deliver water to Manhattan. Although Highbridge is presently used as a pedestrian walking bridge, it was originally created and used as an aqueduct.

Since the creation of the water system, the DEP, in collaboration with NY communities, take many steps to ensure the water collection and surrounding region is high quality. Historically, the NYC water system has improved our health for generations. It vastly improved public health in the past by providing a clean water source to all. Presently, it also provides a healthy beverage to all.

To learn more, visit:

The New York Times article, How New York City Gets Its Water

New York City Department Environmental Protection 

NYC 2016 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report