| Taking the guesswork out of fresh fruits and veggies |  A new resource is now available for small grocery and convenience stores to help make selling fresh produce a little easier: the Healthy Foods Here Produce Manual.
Owners of small grocery and convenience stores often have minimal experience working with fresh produce. The Healthy Foods Here Produce Manual takes the guesswork out of displaying, storing and handling fresh produce. The manual provides basic care information on nearly 50 types of popular fruits and vegetables in easy-to-understand language with a picture of each kind of fruit or vegetable.
This free resource will be given to store owners as part of an in-person training and is also available online for small retailers across the country who are looking to carry healthier food in their stores.
The Healthy Foods Here project is working with small retailers such as small grocery stores and convenience stores to sell fresh and healthy foods, providing a range technical assistance and financial incentives.
For more information, please email healthyfoodshere@gmail.com. |
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Picture a tobacco-free community | While it may be rare to see smokers in many parts of Seattle, it's commonplace on Capitol Hill, heart of the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. LGBTQ individuals are twice as likely to smoke as the general population.
Entre Hermanos members are taking matters - and cameras - into their own hands to stop this inequity. On Saturday, Feb. 12, Entre Hermanos members scoured the neighborhood with digital cameras to document evidence of tobacco marketing and consumption. The group then gathered at the Entre Hermanos office to view their images and discuss ways to take action to prevent tobacco.
The "photo scavenger hunt" is part of an initiative to use digital media to create healthier communities sponsored by Entre Hermanos, a Capitol Hill based non-profit that supports the Latino LGBTQ community, and partners Sea Mar, International Community Health Services and Creative Narrations.
The initiative, Mapping Our Voices for Equality or M.O.V.E., will create an interactive online community map featuring alternative media messages created by local Latino and Asian community members. Digital stories (brief first-person narratives) and photos will be embedded in the map highlighting efforts to promote access to physical activity and reduce tobacco.
The community map will launch in September 2011 as an educational and organizing tool to communicate the impact of health inequities in communities of color.
For additional information, please contact Marcos Martinez.
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Photo by Suzi Pratt |
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| Coming soon: Smoke-free affordable housing | Converting more than 1,700 affordable housing units to non-smoking is no easy task, but Housing Resource Group is well on its way to implementing smoke-free policies in all of its properties by Sept. 1, 2011.
Second-hand smoke presents serious health risks to those who come in contact with it. In fact, deaths from second-hand smoke in adult non-smokers are estimated at nearly 50,000 per year. In addition to the health risks, smoking also increases the risk of injury caused by fires and smoking-related property damage. Rental units vacated by smokers require extraordinary maintenance and renovation efforts to remove stains and burns.
 | | Tobacco-related stains on a lightswitch at a unit smoked in for 20 years |
With that in mind, HRG has been working with its partner, the Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (C.H.E.F.), to implement smoke-free policies in a careful, deliberate manner, emphasizing extensive notice and feedback. They are educating staff about the policy change and have formed an advisory committee to provide guidance on developing and implementing the new policy.
Residents are not being asked to stop smoking but will not be able to do so in the building. For residents who decide to quit smoking, HRG is promoting cessation resources like the Washington State Quitline (1-800-QUIT-NOW).
Later this year, all 26 of HRG's affordable housing buildings in Seattle will be smoke-free. |
| CPPW Coalition picks up momentum |
 In late January, more than 130 people from schools, local governments, community-based organizations and Public Health attended the CPPW Coalition meeting in Burien.
"We had an extremely productive and energetic meeting," said Dr. Jim Krieger, Chief of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention at Public Health - Seattle & King County. "Coalition members approved an interim governance structure. They also discussed the policy areas where they wish to work together."
The "high value/high impact" topic and policy with most interest from coalition members for Healthy Eating/Active Living was improving school nutrition and physical activity. There is also interest in promoting healthy corner stores, reducing sugar-loaded beverage consumption, using procurement to increase healthy options, and improving nutrition and physical activity in childcare settings.
For Tobacco, there was most interest in smoke-free, affordable, multi-family housing. A second tier of Tobacco Prevention priorities included tobacco-free childcare, restrictions on flavored tobacco and nicotine products that appeal to youth, implementing cessation support in health-care settings and mental health and substance abuse treatment centers, and restricting tobacco retailer locations near schools. |
| First Farm to Table produce delivery |
 The Puget Sound Farm Network's (PSFN) first Farm to Table delivery went off without a hitch in January when 50 lbs. of leeks were delivered to the Chicken Soup Brigade/Lifelong AIDS Alliance, which provides home-delivered meals and grocery bags to older adults and people living with HIV/AIDS and other life challenging illnesses. The leeks were harvested the morning of the delivery and tranformed into a Caribbean tilapia dish with lime and leeks the very next day. Congratulations to 21 Acres Farm in Woodinville and to Chicken Soup Brigade for making the first successful Farm to Table linkage! PSFN and the CPPW Farm to Table Partnership are on their way to a smoothly operating and sustainable Farm to Table model. If you're interested learning more, please contact Karen Mauden, Farm to Table Coordinator at 425-466-8722 or Karen@psfn.org. |
| Completing the streets, one community at a time |  The Cascade Bicycle Club has been on the road conducting half-day Complete Streets workshops in communities around south and east King County. Most transportation systems were historically designed around the automobile; Complete Streets aims to fix that. Complete Streets rethinks the way our roads are designed and operated to enable safe access for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities. Complete Streets make it easy to cross the street, walk to shops, and bicycle to work. In addition to providing transportation options for people, public health is at the heart of the Complete Streets movement. The design of our communities plays a critical role in the choices that we make, and how we get around ultimately impacts our health and well-being. In places where people have more diverse transportation options (transit, bicycle and pedestrian networks), people are more likely to use active modes of transportation and ultimately more likely to meet the recommended levels of physical activity. In Washington state, 11 communities have adopted a Complete Streets policy or ordinance, from the 10,000-resident town of Sedro-Woolley to Kirkland to Seattle. Cascade Bicycle Club is working to add partner communities of Burien, SeaTac, Des Moines, Kent, Federal Way and Snoqualmie to the list of cities with Complete Streets ordinances through its work on CPPW, so that all new and reconstructed roadways in those communities meet the safety and mobility needs of all travelers, especially pedestrians, bicyclists and those with visual or mobility impairments. |
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About CPPW |  In the spring of 2010, Public Health - Seattle & King County and partners were awarded a highly competitive Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grant to advance policy, system and environment changes to create neighborhoods that foster health and reduce disease. For more information on CPPW in King County, please visit our website. If you have any feedback or suggestions on our newsletter, contact Katie Ross. |
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| Are you connected? |  |
Have you visited the Healthy King County website lately? Log on and check out what CPPW partners are doing.
Here are three improvements we want you to know about:
You can now post videos from Vimeo, YouTube, Hulu and other video sites right on the main page. Just look for the new video section (and check out the other videos while you're at it, like Auburn School District's Commit to Fit event).
Resources are automatically organized by category (rather than by the most recent posting) to make it easier to find what you're looking for. You can still see the most recent resources added next to the category name.
A "Member of the Week" is now featured on the main page so that we can highlight the amazing work of CPPW partners.
Thanks to everyone who has been contributing to Healthy King County! We love to hear about all your fantastic work.
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| CPPW in action |  |
Change takes time and it won't be easy, but CPPW partners have already taken steps to build a healthier King County.
January 2011
The Healthy Foods Here Produce Manual makes it easier for small grocery and convenience stores to sell fresh produce.
Highline Medical Center goes smoke-free.
A new tobacco cessation campaign makes 50,000,000 impressions on King County residents in multiple languages and will increase public knowledge of free cessation resources.
December 2010
The King County Board of Health passes comprehensive e-cigarette regulations to protect youth in King County.
October 2010
A new education campaign spreads the word about the health impacts of consuming sugar-loaded beverages.
September 2010
The King County Board of Health adopts new Planning for Healthy Communities Guidelines to inform planning decisions and promote health by creating environments that allow people to be physically active, eat healthy food, and live in safe and healthy places. |
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| Upcoming Training |  |
Getting the word out: How to generate media interest
Join us as we explore the most effective ways to tell your organization's story -the successes, the challenges and everything in between.
Tuesday, March 1
1-4 p.m.
Tukwila Community Center
12424 42nd Avenue S.
Tukwila, WA 98168
Monday, March 7
1-4 p.m.
Chinook Building
Rooms 121 and 123
401 Fifth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104
In this interactive training, we will review and practice communications techniques to help you become an effective spokesperson and learn the fundamentals of media outreach.
After completing the training, you will have tools in your hand to help you tell your CPPW story in a way that interests the media and your audience.
Please RSVP to Julia Cordero.
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| Mark your calendars | | |
The next CPPW Coalition meeting will be on Tuesday, April 26 from 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., location TBD. |
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