Increasing access to healthier food

by Jennifer Hemmingsen

Too many low-income families around here have an easier time buying a Hostess apple pie than an honest-to-goodness apple.

That's because they live in “food deserts,” areas where fast-food and convenience stores are plenty, but grocery stores and farmers markets are scarce.

Add time and transportation issues, and it can be pretty difficult to put a healthy meal on the table.

Now Linn County Public Health is proposing a fresh food co-op that would help as many as 500 Cedar Rapids families eat a little better. The plan is to bring affordable, fresh produce to Wellington Heights, Time Check, Oakhill Jackson, Truman and Taylor neighborhoods through a subsidized community supported agriculture network that delivers food within walking distance of members' homes.

“We want to make sure every day, everybody has the access to the tools they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” Jill Roeder, outreach coordinator for Healthy Linn Care Network, told me on Friday.

Public health officials and partners, including the Matthew 25 Ministry Hub, hope to score federal funding to set up the system, which they say could be in place by next year.

Their plan is to seek help from volunteers and community partners, and to buy the goods from local farmers when they can - another plus.

Roeder told me after The Gazette's front-page article on Friday, she'd been getting a lot of calls from folks interested in participating or in helping out. That's great news: Increasing access to and education about healthier foods literally can change people's lives.

More than 60 percent of Linn County residents are overweight. A good number are what Roeder calls “hopers” - people who eat whatever they want and then hope for the best.

This program could help convert some of those hopers to copers, armed with information and raw materials to make positive changes in their diet - to start taking charge of their health.

The link between income and nutrition is well-established: Researchers have found that people living in food-insecure households load up on more empty calories - consuming fewer vitamins, minerals, fruits, vegetables, grains and meat - than those who don't. Over time, that substandard diet can cause or complicate all kinds of health-related problems.

It might cost a few dollars at first to get fresh foods in the hands of folks in targeted Cedar Rapids neighborhoods, but the payoff - a healthier community - is potentially much greater.

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Contact the writer at (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com