25,000 residents, while the rest of the city has one per 12,500. Such “food deserts” are areas overserved by fast-food and convenience stores, and underserved by supermarkets and fresh food. The Center has taken an active role in addressing this problem by working with partner organizations on a Food in Neighborhoods committee to support farmers markets, community gardens, local food entrepreneurs, and both policy and economic development strategies that help increase access to healthy food for all.
Healthy in a Hurry Corner Stores
How do you turn a food desert into an oasis? One way is by increasing the accessibility and availability of healthy food. In partnership with the YMCA, we have been working with neighborhood corner stores on selling fresh fruits and vegetables (some of which is locally grown). A group of students at Meyzeek Middle School named the initiative “Healthy in a Hurry.” The goal is to expand to other stores throughout the city because everyone deserves access to fresh, affordable produce.
Click here to read more!
The State of Food Report!
A Snapshot of Food Access in Louisville
There are few things in human life that are more essential than food. However, there are enormous differences in the ways we purchase, prepare, and access food. The food system is an incredibly complex web of cause and effect, impacted at all levels from the farmer that produces the food to the consumer who shops at the local supermarket.
In Louisville, we are deconstructing this web, and addressing the cracks in the system by forming new initiatives and creating solutions to address the inequities that currently exist. This report is intended to highlight important characteristics from our local food system using a meta-analysis of a number of studies that explore the opportunities and barriers Louisvillians have in accessing food.
Click here to read the full report.
Let’s Move! has an ambitious but important goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
Let’s Move will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.
Join First Lady Michelle Obama, community leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, moms and dads in a nationwide campaign to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity. Learn more, read the action plan, and join us in solving the problem within a generation.
Click here to see a video on Eliminating Food Deserts in America.
What is a "Food Desert"? Find out what is being done to combat these nutritional wastelands on a trip to Philadelphia with First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary Tom Vilsack. Learn more at www.letsmove.gov.