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.

New School for Leadership and the Arts Wins The Bronx Salad Dressing Competition

Bronx Health REACH's Moria Byrne-Zaaloff,  teachers Jeanelle Divine and Andrea Arist-Neequaye, and students from the New School for Leadership and the Arts at the tasting event at the awards ceremony.


Wowing judges with their delicious Citrus Summer Salad Dressing, students from the New School for Leadership and the Arts are the winners of The Bronx Salad Dressing competition. On Tuesday, at the June 25th award ceremony, students participated in a Bronx Salad tasting event, observed a cooking demonstration by George Edwards of the Office of Food and Nutrition Services NYC; and heard from guest speaker, Aleyna Rodriguez-Sanes, Director of Bronx Canasta. The students created the salad dressing during their Science and Cooking afterschool program sponsored by the Montefiore Moshulu Community Center and Department of Youth and Community Development.

Schools that participated in the competition received seeds to grow the salad ingredients, a copy of The Bronx Salad Toolkit for Schools with growing instructions and hands-on training from Bronx Health REACH and GrowtoLearnNYC teams. This is the second year we have held the Bronx Salad competition. Last year, schools submitted photos for The Bronx Salad Toolkit for Schools Photo Competition. The winning photo, (submitted by PS 333-The Longwood Academy of Discovery) now graces the cover of the toolkit.

Don't Stress, Eat Fresh Bodega Marketing Campaign Receives Funding from City Council

New York City Council Member Andrew Cohen visited Tita Mini Market, a partner bodega in the Healthy Bodega program. (Left to right)  Ariana Cipriani from Jerome-Gun Hill BID, Charmaine Ruddock from Bronx Health REACH, Council Member Andrew Cohen, Hakeem Al Hariri owner of Tita Mini Market, Liz Spurrell-Huss from Montefiore’s Community and Population Health Department and Frank Marte from The Bodega Association.

The Don't Stress, Eat Fresh Healthy Bodega marketing campaign has received $2500 funding from the City Council. Funding was part of the allocation for the Bronx Delegation. In February, members of the Bronx Bodega Partners Workgroup met and spoke with six members of the Bronx Delegation at City Hall about the marketing campaign. At the meeting, some of the Council Members expressed interest in visiting our partner bodegas located in their districts.

Justin Cortes, Budget Director for Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson visited Aqui Me Quedo. (Left to right)  Frank Marte from The Bodega Association (ASOBEU), Justin Cortes, Maria Morales from Montefiore, Juan Romeo-owner of Aqui Me Quedo, Chris McKay from Church of God of Prophecy, Charmaine Ruddock from Bronx Health REACH, Liz Spurrell-Huss from Montefiore’s Community and Population Health Department.

Justin Cortes, Budget Director for Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson, paid a visit to partner bodega Aqui Me Quedo to learn more about the Healthy Bodega Program. Mr. Cortes was joined by Workgroup partners from the Bodega Association, Bronx Health REACH and Montefiore Medical Center. Bishop Earl McKay and son Chris McKay from Church of God of Prophecy, who will be doing a program with the bodega and the Church Youth Group, also joined the tour. News12 The Bronx was there and did a feature on the program.

Charmaine Ruddock from Bronx Health REACH, David Diaz from the Bodega Association USA, Council Member Fernando Cabrera and Frank Marte, owner of Green Earth Grocery.

Council Member Fernando Cabrera visited Green Earth Grocery, and Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. visited La Mina Mini Market. Both bodegas partner with Bronx Health REACH in its Healthy Bodega Initiative. Council Member Diana Ayala visited Los Hermanos, a partner bodega of BronxWorks. Bodega tours were also planned with Council member King but because of unforeseen circumstances they did not happen. We strongly encourage all members of the Bronx Delegation to visit participating bodegas in their districts.

Funding for the Don't Stress, Eat Fresh marketing campaign would help create more consumer awareness of bodegas selling healthy food. The hoped for result would be an increased demand for healthy food in our partner bodegas. To publicize the importance of the campaign, Workgroup members have successfully submitted Op-Eds to various Bronx community newspapers and posted on social media tagging Bronx Council Members.

Click here to find a partner bodega in your neighborhood.