A community response to the food environment.
In 2005, the Pioneering Healthier Communities initiative prompted the creation of the Activate West Michigan coalition. One of its earliest objectives was to increase fruit and vegetable consumption for people who lived in low-income, African American, and Latino communities in urban Grand Rapids. Because the existing food environment created barriers to this objective, the coalition created community and schoolyard gardens and farmers' markets. By 2008, the Activate West Michigan coalition had begun to improve the food environment by establishing nine community and schoolyard gardens and five farmers' markets.
Cyzman
Denise
D
Diabetes Council, National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, East Lansing, Michigan 48823, USA. cyzman@chronicdisease.org
Wierenga
Janet
J
Sielawa
Julie
J
D001741:Black or African American; D000383:Agriculture; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005523:Food Supply; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000517:prevention & control; D008824:Michigan; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D011203:Poverty; D012931:Social Environment