Why Place and Race Matter – New Report Released Today

Where you live impacts how you live. But, too often, policy makers don’t recognize that your race affects your health, too. From heart disease to cancer to child mortality to asthma, people of color are more likely to face significant health challenges – and more likely to die from those challenges. A new report we are releasing today, Why Place and Race Matter, makes the undeniable case that race must be central to the decisions made by policymakers, advocates, and community leaders if we ever hope to close the racial health gap. Download Why Place and Race Matter

Health Fair...Goochland Farmers Market!

Health Fair Saturday, June 19, 8 am to noon

You won't want to miss this special day at the Goochland Farmers Market, located at Grace Church, 2955 River Road West in Goochland. Along with our regular vendors and events there will be many area groups and organizations involved in health and nutrition available.

Team SHRINK-A-Thon will be handing out healthy snack bars, as well as informational brochures on their classes and fundraisers. They'll also have a display comparing sugar content in healthy vs. processed foods.

The local Curves will also be on hand, with fun free giveaways and resources on women's health.
You'll find informational booths from the following organizations: American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, ET (Essential Tremor) Support Group, Alzheimer's Association, Family Chiropractic of Richmond, Goochland-Powhatan Community Services, Grace Moves, KidzRCookin, Monarch Natural Medicine, National Kidney Foundation, Rodan & Fields, South River Compounding Pharmacy, Virginia Women's Center and more!

In addition, HCA Virginia Health System will provide screenings for blood pressure, BMI, blood glucose, cholesterol, bone density, Gail risk, and derma scans (nurses use a derma scan machine to identify areas of skin damage and conduct Gail Risk Assessment to determine risk of breast cancer).

This event is sponsored by Family Chiropractic of Richmond and Center for Rural Culture. For more information please call Jessica at 804-784-0161 or email info@familyccr.com.

Beth Hopkins
Program Coordinator
Center for Rural Culture - Cultivating Local Roots CenterForRuralCulture GoochlandFarmersMarket DiscoverGoochland LocalRootsFoodCo-Op

The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters

Without access to healthy foods, a nutritious diet and good health are out of reach. And without grocery stores and other fresh food retailers, communities are missing the commercial hubs that make neighborhoods livable, and help local economies thrive.For decades, community activists have organized around the lack of access to healthy foods as an economic, health, and social justice issue. As concerns grow over healthcare and the country’s worsening obesity epidemic, “food deserts” — areas where there is little or no access to healthy and affordable food—have catapulted to the forefront of public policy discussions.

Read More...

This Friday: Innovative Strategies for Fresh Food Access Webinar

For decades, low-income communities across America have been abandoned by full-service supermarkets – forcing local residents to shop in sugar-heavy convenience stores and to miss out on a steady source of local employment. It’s no wonder the obesity and unemployment crises are hitting these same communities hardest.

But national leaders looking to reverse this trend have their eyes trained on one innovative model – the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative. Since its 2004 launch, this public-private partnership has opened or expanded more than 75 fresh-food stores and farmers markets and created or saved 4,000 jobs in underserved communities. The White House and Congress have expressed serious interest in bringing this model to the national level.

Please join us at 1 pm Eastern (10 am Pacific) this Friday, November 20, for a one-hour webinar “An Apple a Day: Innovative Strategies for Bringing Healthy Food to All Communities”– a look at what other communities can learn from the Pennsylvania effort and how advocates can help bring this model to national scale.

Friday's speakers will be:

• Judith Bell, President, PolicyLink
• Patricia Smith, Director of Special Initiatives, The Reinvestment Fund
• Tracey Giang, Program Manager, The Food Trust

(This is the last installment this year of the Navigating the New DC conference call series. You can listen to the audio of previous calls.)

For questions or comments, please contact DemandEquityNow@policylink.org.