COMMUNITY FOOD ENVIRONMENT
ENACT Strategy: Incentives for Store Owners
Provide training and incentives to small storeowners underserved areas to carry healthier food items, such as fresh produce
Families living in underserved communities rely on small community stores for much of their daily food needs. These stores often do not have the space, staff expertise, or equipment to properly carry fresh produce. As a result, the quality and selection of produce offered in small community stores is often poor. Improving the product quality and availability in small community stores is an important strategy for providing more nutritious food options in underserved areas. Providing training and incentives to store owners can impact the variety of products offered in their stores and, therefore, influence consumption patterns.
Characteristics of training and incentives offered to store owners include:
- Training in the selection, maintenance and storage of fresh produce and other perishables;
- Customer education on benefits of good nutrition;
- Technical assistance;
- Aid with store maintenance and improvement;
- Tax benefits;
- Small business loans;
- Appropriate zoning rules;
- Adequate law enforcement;
- Facilitation of bulk purchases, group health insurance, and other benefits;
- Collaboration between owners and other organizations.
Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH)
The NYC FRESH program provides zoning and financial incentives for the establishment and retention of neighborhood grocery stores in underserved communities in Northern Manhattan, the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn and Jamaica, Queens.
“The Healthy Stores Projects aim to improve health and prevent obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases in low-income minority communities through culturally appropriate store-based interventions that increase the supply of healthy foods and promote their purchase.”
Move to Fruit and Vegetables in New York City
“The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is working with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the Bodega Association of the United States to bring New York State produce to New York City bodegas. Participating bodegas will receive shipments of fresh, ready-to-eat local carrots and apples.”
Youth Envision, a youth program at Literacy for Environmental Justice, organized an innovative program called The Good Neighbor Project, which offers incentives to local food outlets to carry healthy, affordable, fresh foods.
Project CAFE engages students in food mapping and uses a community organizing/action research approach to both learn more about food resources in the community and mobilize community members for increased access to healthy foods.
Neighborhood Groceries: New Access to Healthy Food in Low-Income Communities
This report from the California Food Policy Advocates outlines the problem of access to healthy foods, and provides market-based strategies to improve the nutrition environment.
Healthy Food, Healthy Communities highlights three of the most promising strategies: developing new grocery stores, improving the selection and quality of food in existing smaller stores, and starting and sustaining farmers’ markets
The Fresh Food Financing Initiative
The state of Pennsylvania has implemented legislation to support the establishment of supermarkets in underserved communities in Philadelphia. The Fresh Food Financing Initiative outlines specific requirements to ascertain funding for stores or communities interested in improving the nutrition environment of local areas.
"Policy Link is a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy organization working to advance policies to achieve economic and social equity."
California Food Policy Advocates
CFPA is a nonprofit organization committed to increasing access to nutritious and affordable food in low-income California communities. They provide information on current nutrition legislation.
Evidence Base
The Apache Healthy Stores Project found through surveys that households near the intervention stores increased their consumption of vegetables, high fiber cereals, and decreased consumption of less healthy drinks.
This report shows that obesity and diabetes rates are much higher in communities with an abundance of fast-food outlets and convenience stores than in areas where fresh fruit and vegetable markets and full-service grocery stores are easily accessible.
Hartford Food System Healthy Food Retailer Initiative
This initiative in Hartford, Connecticut has 40 participating stores, and was able to shift 8% of junk food inventories to regular groceries over one year.