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| The lure of fresh tomatoes and juicy strawberries draws Erin Baker to the Crescent City Farmer's Market, held every Tuesday from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at University Square on Broadway. Baker is assistant director of the Prevention Research Center. (Photo by Brian Gauvin) |
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The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University, together with six partner organizations, wants to improve access to fresh, healthy food in New Orleans.
Calling itself the Partnership to Pursue a Food Policy Advisory Committee, the group includes members from Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, the City of New Orleans Health Department, Steps to a Healthier LA/New Orleans, the Louisiana Public Health Institute, the Renaissance Project and the New Orleans Food & Farm Network.
Access to fresh produce was not plentiful prior to Hurricane Katrina; since the levee failures, however, availability has gotten worse. The partnership has been meeting monthly to discuss the issue and brainstorm ways to address the problem. Out of these discussions came the idea to create a Food Policy Advisory Committee.
Based on partnership testimony, the committee drafted a supportive resolution that went on to the New Orleans City Council on Thursday (May 3), and the council unanimously adopted the resolution.
"Similar councils and committees are common throughout the country," says Erin Baker, assistant director of the Prevention Research Center. "People routinely get the message that they should eat more fruits and vegetables. But that message is ineffective if there is a lack of availability in the neighborhood."
The resolution was based on testimony presented to a council committee by Tom Farley, director of the Prevention Research Center and chair of the community health sciences department in the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and Diego Rose, head of the nutrition section in community health sciences. Audio-visual support included a map showing existing supermarkets pre-Katrina, and those that remain in business today. The picture is bleak, leaving vast areas without access to any large supermarkets, Farley says.
"Now the real work begins," says Baker. The partnership already has identified at least a dozen key representatives to sit on the Food Policy Advisory Committee. Members will represent food retailers, banks and foundations, public health and agriculture, with a non-partisan city resident representative also included.
"It's important that this initiative be a citywide effort," Baker stresses. "It's not about targeting specific neighborhoods; it's about creating a healthier food landscape throughout the city."
The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University is focused on community-oriented, collaborative methods to address the impact of the physical and social environment on obesity.
The advisory committee will meet four times by January of 2008, when final recommendations are due to the city council. "The short time frame is designed to get recommendations in place prior to the 2008 state legislative session," says Baker. The partnership hopes to mirror the Food Trust's success in securing initial funding from the state that can then be matched with private funding.
"It's been said before - we have a unique opportunity post-Katrina to make this city a healthier place to live," Baker concludes.
Deirdre Boling is communications and training coordinator in the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University.
