The seventh and final report in the “City Voices: New Yorkers on Health” series, “Food and Nutrition: Hard Truths about Eating Healthy” shows that while food stamps and food pantries are critical resources, they are falling short when it comes to helping low-income New Yorkers maintain healthy eating habits. The report is the result of surveys and focus groups conducted in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, with residents representing more than 10 ethnic and cultural groups talking about the issues that have the greatest impact on their overall health and wellbeing. Community health advocates also express their views in a report that explores food insecurity and the ways that cultural differences may impact healthy eating habits.

This study assessed whether proximity to a supermarket modified the effects of an obesity intervention for participating children aged 6 to 12 years with a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile. Authors found that living closer to a supermarket is associated with greater improvements in fruit and vegetable intake and weight status in an obesity intervention. 

This study investigated the association between female caregivers’ adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and household and child food insecurity, taking into account depressive symptoms. 

IN FOCUS for this issue is “Food Insecurity among Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylees in the United States,” which explores the limited, but growing, body of research on this potentially vulnerable population. The second section of the issue – NEW RESEARCH – highlights ten recent studies related to food insecurity, including new research on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Great Recession, adolescents, veterans, and health outcomes.

Supermarkets are a primary source of food for American households, and increased presence in low-income, high-minority neighborhoods present opportunities to increase access to healthy foods. It is important to assess store manager and customer reactions to in-store marketing interventions. This study aimed to evaluate manager and customer reactions to stealth, low-cost, sustainable in-store marketing strategies to promote healthier purchases in five product categories and gain insight into shopping habits and willingness to change behaviors.

Research Your Community is a new mapping tool available on the Healthy Food Access Portal that can help individuals and organizations better understand the communities in which they are working in to improve access to healthy food.

The tool can also be a valuable resource for your advocacy and fundraising efforts. The grocery landscape is ever changing, and data is one of many ways to paint a picture of a community’s need for healthy food access interventions. This webinar will train users about how to effectively leverage this new tool.

Healthy food marketing efforts have integrated approaches used by the grocery industry with academic research to create promising and feasible practices that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Hear from experts about how these efforts, commonly referred to as in-store marketing strategies, are changing consumer behavior in grocery stores and supermarkets.

This webinar features the latest evidence from the field, and explore how new research is changing how the public purchases nutritious food. Healthy food marketing efforts are generating healthy outcomes for retailers and for consumers.

New research in a joint report by PolicyLink and The Food Trust, Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters: A Review of the Research, underscores healthy food access as the foundation necessary for reaping the positive benefits associated with healthy food. The research reveals that improving healthy food access in low-income communities and communities of color continues to be an urgent need with nearly 30 million people living in low-income areas with limited access to supermarkets. The webinar features report authors along with a local government official. Speakers discuss how findings from the new report can be used to expand healthy food access in communities across the country.