How to help
"Let's move" campaignMichelle Obama made a step towards eliminating food deserts by creating the "Let's Move" campaign. This campaign was to help demolish food deserts by bringing healthy food to poor areas. This was also supporting defeating childhood obesity.
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Can do's "Healthy corner store' initiativeCAN DO’s Healthy Corner Store initiative is the first of its kind to be implemented in Houston, Harris County. This initiative was first invented in the Sunnyside community in the Spring of 2013. After conducting a study in the Spring of 2012, CAN DO was able to partner with a local produce vendor to deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to transform a corner store into one that provided numerous healthy options, and produce was delivered weekly. Since July 2014, CAN DO has expanded this initiative to 10 corner stores across 2 communities (Sunnyside and North Pasadena) and includes nutrition education, cooking demonstrations and sampling, marketing, and various cost-saving promotions.
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Access
The first step to helping food deserts is access. We MUST increase the ease of obtaining quality food. We should replace "convenient" with quality. Increasing stocks of fruit and vegetables at corner stores and small groceries would help. In all food deserts, you need full-scale grocery stores. We need to attract and/or develop more grocery stores and supermarkets where it's needed. People need proper transportation, so we need to improve transportation to grocery stores and farmer's markets. We should have shuttles that transport to full-scale grocery stores, or set up stand once a week to sell fresh fruits and vegetables.
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Community
As a community, we need to focus on local agricultural solutions to decentralize supply and increase the availability of the quality food. We can build and develop backyard and community gardens as well as larger scale urban gardens. We can develop alternative retail outlets such as
-Farmer's Markets -Public Markets -Farm Stands -Community Supported Agriculture (C.S.A) Programs |
Education
Next, we need to educate people about the importance of eating healthy. There's evidence that shows that we need good health education programs that teach the skills needed for buying and cooking healthy foods. This way people can know what to buy, what they are going to do with it, and not go for fast food. We have to think very carefully about giving people the skills to make better decisions when they’re in stores, as well as providing access to the stores in the first place.
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Overall, just putting a grocery store in a food desert isn't going to solve this problem. We need to get involved and help bring fresh and affordable food to people in need.