This week, Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack, announced the release of the RFA for the USDA Farm to
School grants. Please share this announcement
to anyone who may be interested!
The
USDA Farm to School team has done a fabulous job providing support to potential
applicants. If you or someone you know may be interested in applying, I
highly encourage you to check out the grant
awards page. On this page you will find:
- Sample applications
- A list of past and current awardees
(Consider reaching out to a successful applicant from MN!)
- Frequently asked questions
- and of course, the FY2016 Request for
Applications
CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity
(DNPAO) just released a new resource, Healthier Food Retail: An Action Guide for Public Health
Practitioners. It provides guidance on how to develop, implement,
and partner on initiatives in food retail settings. This resource will
help you in your work to improve access, availability, and affordability of
healthier foods and beverages in your state.
This Action Guide is unique in that it is organized around public
health roles, particularly at the state level.
The document covers the following topics:
- How to
support healthier food retail in your state, region, or community through partnership-building,
assessment, and evaluation.
- How
to implement strategies in the following retail settings: grocery
stores; small stores; farmers markets; and mobile food retail. Four
strategy chapters provide a general overview, helpful resources, and
specific actions you can take in these settings.
- How
to address two cross-cutting strategies - transportation and
distribution - that are important to the success of healthier food
retail efforts.
DNPAO also just released an updated version of Healthier Food Retail: Beginning the Assessment Process
in Your State or Community. This resource provides an overview of
how to develop a state or community assessment in food retail settings.
This version contains more details and ‘how-to’ information for practitioners
to use. These assessments can help identify disparities in peoples’ ability to
access affordable, nutritious foods. The document takes practitioners through a
step-by-step process for conducting assessments, including focusing, planning,
implementing, and communicating assessment findings.
Based on research commissioned by the Every Body Walk!
Collaborative, this webinar will help you understand which messages about
walking and walkability work, and which ones don't. Karen Saverino and
colleagues at Metropolitan Group will present the results of surveys, key
informant interviews, and focus groups conducted across the country, that will
help us effectively frame the issue of walkable communities. Your
"call to action" will be to build these messages into your next
communications initiative. Click here to register.
Transforming the built environment to improve health outcomes can
take years, if not decades. This webinar will focus on short term, low cost,
yet high impact strategies for improving streets, public spaces, and buildings
across the country that can lead to longer term change. Kate Rube and her team
at Project for Public Spaces will present health-promoting ‘Lighter, Quicker,
Cheaper’ approaches, including active recreation amenities, street redesigns
that prioritize pedestrians, and farmers’ market stands. After the
webinar, participants will be ready to create great public places that attract
people and provide many ways to get healthy. Click here to register.
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