healthysolutions

Our largest challenge as an organization is funding- we are a small organization with a large agenda and currently no funders, so I do a lot of volunteering and work with folks who are willing to barter for food to get the community what we need. In the community we run into various challenges block by block. And honestly there are so many challenges that we run into, that that is not a simple answer! Our most pressing issue - Is that Ward 7 and ward 8 are food deserts, so a lot of community members have come accustom to eating junk food that they find at the liquor store - which is considered the grocery to a lot of families, because that is all they have access to. So we face all the issues that revolve around the community not have access to FRESH FOOD. We have to do a lot of basic education- but you have to be strategic in how you do that because we run into literacy issues. So we do a lot of face to face education and simple things like tastings and cooking classes, so people can see and taste the difference. Once you have someone willing to eat healthy, than you can build on that by then looking at their overall health, and are they managing their chronic diseases for example. We have a generation of young people who don't know what a banana is..... or didn't know that spinach came in anything but a can. Not because they are ignorant but because no one ever told them otherwise, and they definitely don't see one at the corner liquor store that they run and get their milk and bread from. Some of the most pressing issues that we see east of the river: - lack of healthy and affordable foods (78% of east of the river residents live more than a 15 minute walking distance from a grocery store) - high poverty (31% of adults live below the poverty line- 47% of children live below the poverty line) - higher than average unemployment rates (east of the river has triple the amount of unemployment than the national average - 38%) - Lack of safe places to play and learn All of those things and many more add to other problems our community faces - high juvenile crime rates and teen pregnancy (because our youth have few things to do and few places to go - they find unhealthy ways to pass the time) - high rates of chronic disease, asthma, and obesity (where 40% of youth east of the river are considered obese and 1 in 3 adults are considered obese) I know that none of these things will just disappear overnight because it has taken decades for these issues to accumulate. So we have many challenges all seem to add up to others, but what I'm hoping is that Healthy Solutions can make small changes that will eventually have a large impact to better my community.

Thanks Don and Zora, the honor is all mine. Yes Zora, I'll give a rundown (might not be quick) on our programs and I'll come back on a little later and answer more questions and give you all a little more detail about what Healthy Solutions does, why we do it, and why I feel it's important. So our programs - DC Produce Co-operative - Is our main program - it’s a community based food system program that sources organic produce (sometimes milks and eggs) in bulk from farms small and large. We offer pre-made fresh fruit and vegetable boxes called “Freggie” (fresh fruits and veggies) boxes to the community at set prices. These boxes come in a variety of sizes that offer enough fresh fruits and vegetables to sustain a family size up to 10 for a 2 week time frame. We also educate youth on how to run a co-op in their communities, and teach them the importance of healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. Healthy Corner Stores (with DC Hunger Solutions) - one of our work in progress programs - We supply corner stores in ward 7 and 8 with fresh organic produce at wholesale cost in small quantities (1 head of lettuce, 2 apples etc) so that they can offer fresh fruits and vegetables in the community at affordable prices (I will get into this program more later) Co-operative / Farmers Market - Functions like a farmers market - minus the farmer. We have youth run markets and teach them about agriculture, and how to run a business. Value Added Project is one of newer projects and it a work in progress - it's designed to be an educational healthy foods enterprise training program for youth that would give youth a change to learn about changing their eating habits while training them on how to produce Value Added products (such as fruit cups, salads, salsa), that they produce and then market to corner stores, businesses and the community. We also want to expand this to include training on how to make smoothes, and pies that will be sold in our training center market and cafe And our largest program that we are working to create: Fresh Start Market - the Fresh Start market will be healthy food enterprise training facility - market and cafe all in one! The Market will sell locally and organically produced products (some of which we will grow ourselves), the cafe will service healthy foods - nothing fried - regular cafe foods - salads, sandwiches smoothes, coffees etc. However it will be a training program that we will give job skills and training to community members where they will learn culinary skills, urban agriculture, and healthy food production. The Market will also provide catering services, and a distribution service throughout the city. This will be the only program of its kind East of the River, we are looking to create jobs in an area that has an unemployment rate of 38%, while creating sustainable communities. We do cooking classes and nutrition classes with partners. We are also working to replicate our co-op program in other areas. So that’s about it in a nutshell And when I figure out how to post pictures - I will post some photos of what we do and offer.