Enterprising businesses are increasing their efficiency, reducing costs, addressing food equity, and engaging existing community assets to get healthy, affordable food to underserved consumers. The webinar introduces one such business, Lake County Community Development Corporation (CDC) in Ronan, Montana. This is followed by a broader discussion of healthy food access learning across a wide range of models in the U.S to include rural, urban, and urban-rural linkages. 

This report summarizes findings of a national-level assessment of the extent and characteristics of food deserts, analysis of the consequences of food deserts, lessons learned from related Federal programs, and a discussion of policy options for alleviating the effects of food deserts. Overall, findings show that a small percentage of consumers are constrained in their ability to access affordable nutritious food because they live far from a supermarket or large grocery store and do not have easy access to transportation.

A quick and easy guide for reading food labels. This document will help you make healthier food choices.

Circle Food Store is set to open in mid to late summer of 2013. New owner Dwayne Boudreau spent years lining up the $8 million needed to repair the damages from the post-Katrina flood.

Lafayette Market, a 10,000 square-foot grocery store is set to open December 2012. It will offer fresh produce, a café, a fresh meat counter and more. Federal money from the Neighborhood Stabilization 2 and New Markets and Historic Tax Credit programs, as well as the Michigan Magnet Fund, state historic tax credits, brownfield tax credits and private lenders helped pay for the renovation of the building at North Saginaw and Lafayette.

After decades of rising childhood obesity rates, several American cities are reporting their first declines. The trend has emerged in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, as well as smaller places like Anchorage, Alaska, and Kearney, Neb. The state of Mississippi has also registered a drop, but only among white students.

This comprehensive policy report provides a better understanding of how and why some local governments have addressed food access and food system issues in the comprehensive or sustainability planning process and identifies common themes and innovative features for implementing plan policies and achieving plan goals. 

In recent years, the national childhood obesity rate has leveled off. However, some cities and states have reported modest declines in their rates, following peaks in the early 2000s.Growing evidence suggests that strong, far-reaching changes—those that make healthy foods available in schools and communities and integrate physical activity into people's daily lives—are working to reduce childhood obesity rates.

The Ziploc® Fresh Eating Survey, has uncovered a city-by-city snapshot of food-related choices across America. They list the top 10 "freshest cities" where residents are eating the freshest food options available and also the least fresh cities where residents face obstacles to eating fresh. In conjunction with these findings, Ziploc® has formed a partnership with Rachael Ray to implement an initiative encouraging families to "freshover" their outlook on eating.

A study conducted by the Food Research and Action Center gave Memphis the unenviable distinction of "hunger capital of the United States." Since then, a swell of interest and concern over urban food deserts has brought issues of food access for underserved communities to the fore.