This report is a summary of contents from 25 interviews in Southern states focused on communities and individuals working on racial and food justice.
Featured OPCE Authored Resources
Reframing the Obesity Conversation
How obesity is described, or framed, can affect whether a solution has popular or decision-maker support. Learn more about reframing the conversation.
All CHSC Related Resources
Included in the collection are informational materials and tools. To search by title, use the main search box located at the top of this page.
Fast Facts
The documents found at the links below provide facts from up-to-date studies and “fast facts” written in consumer friendly language. To reduce review time, materials developed using facts from these documents exactly as they are written will not need additional science review, which will reduce the overall product review time.
Sugary Drinks in America: Who’s Drinking What and How Much?
Over the last two decades, the sugary drink landscape has been changing. Between a plethora of new drinks on the market and reported changes in beverage sales, many people are confused or concerned about the current state of sugary drink sales and consumption patterns. This report describes the consumption and sales of sugary drinks in the United States over time and among demographic subgroups. Specifically, the report defines sugary drinks, describes health issues related to sugary drink consumption, and answers questions about how many sugary drinks are being consumed in the US and whether consumption patterns differ by age, race/ethnicity, and income.
School Fundraisers: Make Money and a Positive Impact!
Raising money through fundraisers can support the financial health of schools. Yet, when non-nutritious foods are sold, it is at the expense of the health and well-being of children and their families. Eating habits are greatly influenced by the types of foods and beverages that are available. When schools sell candy, cookies, and other unhealthy foods, they are increasing their availability. Schools across New York are changing how they fundraise—whether it’s to provide fun, family activities; to help community members recycle unwanted electronics; or to sell school promotional items—to make a positive impact in the community. Some of the most successful ideas are provided on this handout.
Food Service Guidelines: Supporting Healthy Worksites Toolkit
OPCE developed a document with practical guidance and resources to use when developing, adopting, implementing, and evaluating food service guidelines. These guidelines are intended to help CHSC coordinators consider the range of settings where they can influence healthy food options, and to showcase useful resources and tools. Champions within an organization can also use these guidelines to improve their worksite nutritional environments.
Tips for Teachers
One-pager: 7 things you can do to make your school a healthier place! Updated April 2018. Download Tips for Teachers
Empowered Eaters: A Road Map for Stronger New York City/State Nutrition Education Policies and Programs
Two new NYSHealth-supported reports offer recommendations for how the city and state can increase access to nutrition education and sustainably fund nutrition-enhancing initiatives.
Comparison of Nutrition Guidelines for Prepared Food
Increasing access to healthier foods and beverages in public places is a fast-growing movement across the country. This resource provides comparisons of nutrition-based and food-based standards for prepared foods sold or served at catered meetings and events, cafeterias and cafes, concessions stands, university campuses, and other public and private food service settings. Also included is a comparison of beverage standards for food service settings.
Healthy Food Policy Project
Find healthy food laws around the country with the Healthy Food Policy Project.
Using the Power of Procurement for Healthier Communities
Check out this infographic on the power of procurement in developing just food systems.
The Public Plate in New York State: Growing Health, Farms and Jobs with Local Food
Boosting public spending on fresh foods grown on New York State farms and served in schools, childcare centers, older adult centers, food pantries and other institutions, has the potential to improve health for more than six million New Yorkers, while increasing economic opportunities across the state. The new analysis of how food is purchased and consumed in public places reveals opportunities to improve current New York food procurement policies and practices in ways that will benefit communities across the state.
Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities
Putting Local Food Policy to Work for Our Communities toolkit offers information about legal concepts, stakeholders, and issue areas that underpin food policy.
1422 Healthy Retail Assessment
This is one of the 1422 required assessments and although it is not required for CHSC is might be a useful tool for evaluating retail stores and developing an action plan.
NYS Local IMPACT Food Retail Assessment Tool_PRE TEST
Guidance on NYS Local IMPACT Food Retail Store Assessment PRE TEST
Eastern Highlands Health District Toolkit
In 2015, in partnership with the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association (CCAPA), EHHD was awarded a Plan4Health grant by the American Planning Association (APA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA). The focus of this grant is to support EHHD/CCAPA efforts to increase physical activity and access to healthy foods in the region’s towns by helping them link their planning and public health programs with a focus on healthier communities. This toolkit is designed to support the EHHD region towns, as well as any other small, rural towns, in these efforts. The EHHD and its CHART Coalition are actively working to help their communities create places where residents will have more opportunities to be physically active, eat healthy foods, and have fun!
Providing Fresh Produce in Small Stores
Overview of the produce distribution system, with challenges, solutions, and tips for implementation.
New York State-New York City Regional Food Hubs Task Force Final Action Plan
Recommendations of the Regional Food Hubs Task Force. In December 2014, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo formed the New York State and New York City Regional Food Hub Task Force at the statewide Farm-to-Table Upstate-Downstate Agricultural Summit. The goal of the Upstate-Downstate Summit was to boost production and consumption of New York State fresh and value-added foods. The Task force explored tools to increase access to fresh food, by helping smaller producers to reach local downstate markets. The Task Force was charged with identifying capital investments and policy solutions that advance these goals. Based on its research and analysis, the Task Force recommends the development of a NYS-NYC Regional Food Hubs System, organized within a framework of physical and programmatic initiatives to be developed and implemented in partnership with local stakeholders.
Building the business case for produce at convenience stores
This overview is divided into 7 sections:
1. Background: An overview of the convenience
store industry, produce sales and snacking trends
2. Opportunity: A look at demand, products and
consumer trends that can affect sales success
3. Consumer insights: A closer look at the customers
seeking out produce and how they shop in convenience
stores
4. Logistics and specifics: There are a number of
elements to consider in developing and executing
a successful produce program
5. Getting started: A primer for how to start a
program based on one retailer’s experience
6. Managing Fresh: An example of a fresh build-to
book and the methodology behind it
7. Next steps: There are other considerations to
be addressed
Convenience Stores and the “Fresh” Opportunity
Convenience Stores and the “Fresh” Opportunity explores the fresh and less processed food being offered by a cross section of convenience stores, including consumer perceptions of independent and chain-store meals and snacks. Matched with data on snacks, Millennials and female demographics, the white paper provides insights and recommendations on convenience-store shopping experiences, merchandising, store designs and fresh categories.
Food Business Pathways
White paper on an NYC program to assist public housing residents with small business ownership.
Freshest Cargo: Mobile Farmers’ Market
FRESHEST CARGO is a farmers’ market on wheels, bringing fresh, California-grown fruits and vegetables to neighborhoods all over the San Francisco Bay Area.
Perspectives of Urban Corner Store Owners and Managers on Community Health Problems and Solutions
Urban corner store interventions have been implemented to improve access to and promote purchase of healthy foods. However, the perspectives of store owners and managers, who deliver and shape these interventions in collaboration with nonprofit, government, and academic partners, have been largely overlooked. The study sought to explore the views of store owners and managers on the role of their stores in the community and their beliefs about health problems and solutions in the community.
The Common Market: A Case Study. Rebuilding a Regional Food Economy and Increasing Access to Healthy Food
A case study of healthy retail at Common Market in Philadelphia
Running a Food Hub-Lessons Learned from the Field
In recent years, several surveys—including the 2013 National Food Hub Survey and the Food Hub Benchmarking Study—have collected data on U.S. food hubs. What seems to be lacking from the current research on food hubs is information on operations and “lessons learned” from those involved in starting and operating food hubs. To help fill this void, interviews were conducted with the leaders of 11 food hubs, using an open-ended, free-flowing format. This allowed for maximum flexibility during each interview and the ability to further capture the unique nature of each entity. The food hubs, located throughout the United States, represent a diversity of organization types, product offerings, operation structures, and missions.
ReFED Food Innovator Database and Policy Finder Tool
This is an outline of a webinar from ReFED, an organization dedicate to reducing food waste, on how to use their Innovator Database in dealing with excess food. The tool tells you who in your area to connect with that will use excess food. Their policy finder also allows you to see various policies dealing with excess waste across the country, which you can propose to your own local governments.
Updated Community Garden Policy Reference Guide
The Public Health Law Center recently announced the release of their new and improved Community Garden Policy Reference Guide. The guide is organized around the steps of creating a garden designed to help community gardeners, advocates, and policymakers navigate potential legal and policy issues related to community gardening.
Resources to Reduce Sugary Drink Consumption Among Latino Kids
Salud America! has released new materials on sugary drink consumption and Latino kids, including a research review, issue brief, and infographics. These new resources, available in English and Spanish, add to Salud America!’s library of existing materials on topics such as healthier schools, active spaces, healthy weight, and health equity.
Center for Healthy Food Access
The Food Trust, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, recently announced the Center for Healthy Food Access launch. Its goals are to promote access to nutrition and affordable food for children nationwide, while catalyzing new ideas and sustaining recent progress around food access. Some initiative efforts include strengthening SNAP and WIC, improving school food and water quality, developing healthy food access venues in underserved areas, and working with businesses on healthy food marketing.
Local Government Food Policy Database
The Growing Food Connections Local Government Policy Database is a searchable collection of local public policies that explicitly support community food systems. This database provides policymakers, government staff, and others interested in food policy with concrete examples of local public policies that have been adopted to address a range of food systems issues: rural and urban food production, farmland protection, transfer of development rights, food aggregation and distribution infrastructure, local food purchasing and procurement, healthy food access, food policy councils, food policy coordination, food system metrics, tax reductions and exemptions for food infrastructure, and much more.
Tiendas Saludables: Cómo lograr que las tiendas sean sitios de compras más saludables (Spanish version of USDA resource, “Healthy Corner Stores: Making Corner Stores Healthier Places to Shop”)
In this USDA guide in Spanish, you will learn how to lay the groundwork for planning and implementing a successful program in your community. It’s important to note that all communities are different, and there is no “one-size-fits-all” corner store program that works for every State, city, or neighborhood. A number of case studies, resources, and best practice recommendations from organizations that have effectively maintained these programs are included for additional learning and support.
Healthy Corner Stores: Making Corner Stores Healthier Places to Shop
In this USDA guide, you will learn how to lay the groundwork for planning and implementing a successful program in your community. It’s important to note that all communities are different, and there is no “one-size-fits-all” corner store program that works for every State, city, or neighborhood. A number of case studies, resources, and best practice recommendations from organizations that have effectively maintained these programs are included for additional learning and support.
Food and Beverage Marketing to Children and Adolescents: What Changes are Needed to Promote Healthy Eating Habits?
The impact of marketing is discussed in this research brief from Healthy Eating Research on what foods and beverages children consume. It includes data about food and beverage marketing venues and methods and examines limiting marketing exposure and other potential solutions to reduce childhood obesity.
Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities: School and Local Government Collaborations
The Local Government Commission and the Cities, Counties, and Schools Partnership produced this fact sheet in April 2007 showing how collaborative efforts between government officials and schools can join forces to reduce childhood obesity. It provides research resources and eight specific examples of policies (some of which are safe routes to schools initiatives), join use agreement, community garden programs, and fast food zoning policies.
Healthy Community Design and Access to Healthy Food Legislation Database
This database of the National Conference of State Legislatures is a valuable tool for anyone interested in state-level legislation related to active living and healthy eating. Users can search by state, topic area(s), year, bill type, bill status, and/or bill number. The website also has a text search feature. This database can be used to develop local policy language and check that local policies are in line with state policies.
ENACT Local Policy Database
This policy database includes policies that have been enacted from a wide variety of states, jurisdictions, and topics. Users can refine their serach by filtering based on cities, counties, school districts, regional bodies, or special districts. The intended use is to provide sample policy language for jurisdictions looking to enact their own policies.
Bringing Healthy Food Home: Examining Inequalities in Access to Food Stores
This research brief provides an overview of the evidence surrounding healthy retail strategies and their links to obesity, with a focus on food access and equality. Recommendations are made for future research to direct policy changes.
Stimulating Supermarket Development: A New Day for New York
The New York Supermarket Commission developed this report which makes nine recommendations, with the goal of protecting the health of children and families by ensuring access to affordable nutritious food. To reach this goal, they call on the city and state to put policies into place that ensure healthy retail.
Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters: A Review of the Research
This report provides a current picture of the state of the research on food access, particularly healthy retail, in an effort to engage new stakeholders.
Healthy Retail Playbook
CHSC Grantees can use this Healthy Retail Playbook to develop a comprehensive approach to improving the retail environment. These innovative resources – a series of conversation starters, a playbook, and a collaboration workbook – can help government agencies collaborate to create a retail environment where it?s easier to make healthy choices than unhealthy ones.
Green for Greens: Finding Public Funding for Healthy Food Retail
ChangeLab Solution’s Green for Greens guide discusses strategies to implement healthy food retail in situations where financing may be a barrier. This guide is divided into two sections. The first provides a general overview of economic development and ideas for how to approach economic development agencies with healthy food retail proposals. The second provides a comprehensive overview of local, state, and federal economic development programs that have been or could be used for healthy food retail projects.
Let’s Go Toolkits
Let’s Go’s website has a host of toolkits which are loaded with information on how to integrate Let’s Go!‘s evidence based strategies and the 5-2-1-0 message into specific environments (schools, out-of-school, child care, health care and workplaces).
School Food and Beverage Marketing Beverage Marketing Assessment Tool
This tool assesses food and beverage advertising in schools. The results of this assessment will be useful to health professionals and educators who are concerned about children’s health and the types of food messages they are exposed to in schools.
Healthy Food and Small Stores
This report identify ways to overcome distribution challenges in the small food retail environment in ways that are profitable for businesses and provide better access to healthy food in stores.
Corner Stores
This tool offers concerned residents, policymakers, business leaders, and advocates ideas and strategies for improving small stores in underserved communities. It provides examples of challenges faced by residents wishing to improve the quality of local corner stores and identifies strategies used to overcome many of these challenges.
Incentives for Change: Rewarding Healthy Improvements to Small Food Stores
This brief offers suggested incentives for small food retailers. Incentives discussed include: education on local regulations, waiving administrative requirements, fees or taxes, lowering up-front costs to provide healthier options, training for owners, store renovations, and promotion to build business among new customers.
Healthy Food Retail: An Action Guide for Public Health Practitioners
This chapter, part of the larger Healthy Food Retail: An Action Guide for Public Health Practitioners, focuses on Distribution. The chapter discusses the public health role in sourcing and distributing healthier foods for retail venues, including local or regional foods.
CHLI Assessment
Community Healthy Living Index (CHLI) contains assessments for six key community settings: afterschool child care sites, early childhood programs, neighborhoods, schools, work sites and the community at large. Each assessment contains questions about policies and practices that support healthy lifestyles. Each question provides a “best practice” or improvement idea for sites to implement
Understanding the Connections: Food Insecurity and Obesity
This document highlights research on food insecurity and obesity, exploring reasons for co-existing in the same community.
Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
This report provides a toolkit of standardized measurement tools for assessing various aspects of community food security. It includes a general guide to community assessment and focused materials for examining six basic assessment components related to community food security. These include guides for profiling general community characteristics and community food resources as well as materials for assessing household food security, food resource accessibility, food availability and affordability, and community food production resources. Data collection tools include secondary data sources, focus group guides, and a food store survey instrument. It is designed for use by community-based nonprofit organizations and business groups, local government officials, private citizens, and community planners.
Youth as Change Agents: Youth-Focused Corner Store Projects
A brief overview of engaging youth in improving the food environment in corner stores, including successful examples and lessons learned from existing initiatives.
The Supplier-Retailer Gap: Connecting Corner Stores with Local Foods
A brief overview of healthy corner store initiatives, including successful examples and lessons learned from existing corner store initiatives.
Sell Healthy! Guide
This guide is designed to support store owners in implementing healthy changes. Topics include products and displays, pricing and promotions, and store appearance.
Healthy Corner Store Initiative
The Food Trust created the Healthy Corner Store Initiative to support corner store owners committed to increasing the healthy food inventory in their stores and to encourage customers to make healthier choices. This report discusses the Healthy Corner Store Initiative model, programs, lessons learned, and evaluation.
Healthy Heart Program Hospital Toolkit
This toolkit includes tools and resources for improving the health environment of hospitals. It includes recommendations and implementation guides for vending machines, patient meals, and cafeterias.
Shop Healthy NYC Implementation Guide
Shop Healthy NYC has created this implementation guide for groups that are interested in transforming a neighborhood’s food environment by working not only with food retailers, but with food suppliers, distributors and other community groups.
Shop Healthy NYC Adopt a Shop Guide
Shop Healthy NYC has developed a guide for community residents and organizations interested in working with local food retailers to increase healthy offerings, like fresh fruits and vegetables, 100% whole wheat bread and low-salt canned goods. This guide provides tips for working with retailers to make healthful changes and for increasing community demand for these healthy offerings.
National Action Plan to Promote Health Through Increased Fruit and Vegetable Consumption 2015 Report Card
This report provides an update on the status of fruit and vegetable consumption in the US as of 2015. It provides a list of prioritized strategies to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in the following settings: nutrition promotion and marketing; supermarkets and other retailers; fruit and vegetable suppliers; restaurants and other food service establishments; schools, child care, and other institutions serving children/adolescents; work places; health care and health organizations; research and evaluation; and state and federal policy.
Health and Wellness Trends for the Convenience Store Sector
This report provides direction as to how convenience stores can tap into the recent “health tide” in the US.
Food Market Measures Toolkit
This toolkit provides an overview of food market measures for the store environment, consumers, and store owners. It helps researchers and practitioners to select appropriate measurement tools for healthy retail work by compiling, categorizing, and describing relevant measurement tools in a user-friendly way.
Guide to Developing A Community Farmers Market
This Guide to Developing a Community Farmers Market can help market organizers to create a strong foundation for a successful, long term farmers market that will be a community asset and a valuable resource for both consumers and farmers. Tools include sample surveys for consumers, farmers and local businesses, a market site evaluation, job description, sample rules, sample market application, and other resources in NY State.
Farmers Market Manager Training Manual
The purpose of this manual is to provide market managers with the training and the tools they need to be effective market mangers and to overcome the many obstacles and challenges to prevent market failure
Model Healthy Food System Resolution
ChangeLab Solutions developed this Model Healthy Food System Resolution to help community members and policymakers start their own conversation about how the local government can support a healthier food system. It suggests numerous actions that the local government could take to understand the local food system, and it establishes a Food Policy Council to continue the food system dialogue after the resolution is enacted.
National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity Healthy Meeting Toolkit
Developed by members of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA), this toolkit includes guidance on key components of a healthy meeting and resources to help make hosting healthy meetings easier.
Health and Sustainability Guidelines for Federal Concessions and Vending Operations
This document proposes specific food, nutrition, and sustainability guidelines to complement the GSA procurement guidelines related to Wellness and Sustainability Requirements for Contracts at federal facilities
Healthier Food Retail: An Action Guide for Public Health Practitioners
The purpose of the Action Guide for Public Health Practitioners is to provide guidance for public health practitioners on how to develop, implement, and partner on initiatives and activities around food retail in order to improve access, availability, and affordability of healthier foods and beverages. The guide is from the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO). With this guide, public health practitioners can begin work in healthier food retail or enhance work on existing healthier food retail activities with new ideas and practical tools and tips. This Action Guide will help practitioners consider the landscape of initiative options and engage in partnerships to support healthier food retail initiatives, assess the food retail environment, and evaluate healthier food retail initiatives.
Tips for Teachers
This fact sheet provides specific tips for teachers to help promote physical activity and healthy eating in the classroom, through making water accessible, offering non-food rewards, not withholding activity as punishment, modeling healthy behaviors, and other strategies.
Food and Beverage Toolkit Resources
This toolkit is designed for anyone involved with workplace food and beverages, from the office vending machine to an off-site special event involving catering. The goal is to provide practical, actionable suggestions that are easy to understand and apply. Provides guidance for leadership and management, meetings and events, vending machines, caterers and food vendors, and by food category.