Tell Congress To Fund Healthy Food Initiatives

by Greg Plotkin · 2010-02-04 10:00:00 UTC
Topics:

In an effort to create much-needed jobs and give residents in low-income communities more choices when it comes to healthy food, President Obama has called for a $400 million investment in the National Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a program devoted to expanding access to supermarkets, farmers markets and other food access vehicles in traditionally underserved neighborhoods.

By including millions of dollars in funding for food access programs in his 2011 budget request, President Obama has given our elected leaders a fantastic opportunity to counter the trend of growing food deserts in American cities.

According to the group PolicyLink, if funded, the NHFFI will "dramatically reduce the roughly 23 million Americans who have limited access to full-service supermarkets and create tens of thousands of retail and construction jobs in low-income communities."

As I mentioned in my original post about this story in December, the NHFFI is modeled on a successful program in Pennsylvania that has already expanded access to healthy food for 400,000 state residents, as well as created nearly 5,000 jobs, since it launched in 2004.

Expanding the program to a national level, according to PolicyLink, will result in the development of more than 2,000 stores or other healthy food retail outlets in low-income rural, suburban and urban communities; increased access to healthy food for more than 15.3 million Americans; and the creation of nearly 200,000 new jobs.

For everyone concerned with ensuring equal access to healthy food in all communities, this funding inclusion should be viewed as a victory -- but only a partial one.  Over the next several months, your help is needed to ensure that the $400 million requested in President Obama's budget is retained through the budget resolution and reconciliation process.

With hunger and food insecurity continuing to affect an unprecedented number of Americans, it's imperative that we don't let this opportunity pass us by. Please take a minute to sign the petition and tell your elected representatives to fully fund the National Healthy Food Financing Initiative because access to healthy food is a right, not a privilege.

Photo credit: Diego Cupolo

Greg Plotkin currently works for Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY. He is dedicated to eliminating inequalities in who has access to healthy food and alleviating hunger.

RELATED PETITION

Tell Congress to Fully Fund the National Healthy Food Financing Initiative
SIGN PETITION
1,570 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
California Court Upholds Jessica's Law ... Sort Of
NEXT STORY:
Sallie Mae Blinks!

COMMENTS (7)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.