title: Partnering with community institutions to increase access to healthful foods across municipalities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Low-income and minority communities have higher rates of nutrition-related chronic diseases than do high-income and nonminority communities and often have reduced availability to healthful foods. Corner store initiatives have been proposed as a strategy to improve access to healthful foods in these communities, yet few studies evaluating these initiatives have been published.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Suburban Cook County, Illinois, encompasses 125 municipalities with a population of more than 2 million. From 2000 through 2009, the percentage of low-income suburban Cook County residents increased 41%; African-American populations increased 20%, and Hispanic populations increased 44%. A 2012 report found that access to stores selling healthful foods was low in several areas of the county.
  
  
  METHODS
  Beginning in March 2011, the Cook County Department of Public Health recruited community institutions (ie, local governments, nonprofit organizations, faith-based institutions) who recruited corner stores to participate in the initiative. Corner stores were asked to add new, healthful foods (May-June 2011) to become eligible to receive new equipment, marketing materials, and enhanced community outreach (July 2011-February 2012).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine community institutions participated. Of the 53 corner stores approached, 25 (47%) participated in the trial phase, which included offering 6 healthful foods in their stores. Of those, 21 (84%) completed the conversion phase, which included expansion of healthful foods through additional equipment and marketing and promotional activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Community institutions can play a key role in identifying and engaging corner stores across jurisdictions that are willing and able to implement a retail environment initiative to improve access to healthful foods in their communities.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, School of Public, Nonprofit, and Health Administration, Grand Valley State University, 401 W Fulton St, Room 288C, Grand Rapids, MI 49504. E-mail: JaskiewL@gvsu.edu.
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jaskiewicz
authors.forename: Rachael D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Dombrowski
authors.forename: Heather M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Drummond
authors.forename: Gina Massuda
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Barnett
authors.forename: Maryann
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Welter
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D003132:Commerce; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005502:Food / Q000145:classification* / Q000191:economics*; D063105:Food Assistance; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois; D008019:Life Style; D011204:Poverty Areas; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014505:Urban Population; D044465:White People