Improving the School Environment | Improving the Food Environment | Farmer's Markets | Improving the Physical Activity Environment

Improving the School Environment

Click here to be directed to the 'for educators' section of this website.  You will find information about the benefits of a healthy school environment; evaluation of improvements in the school environment; strategies/things you can do; increasing local, healthy food into schools or farm to school; vending machines, healthy eating tools, and fast food.

Improving the Food Environment

You are the Food System video is a documentary produced by East Palo Alto Youth Reporters that documents food system change in East Palo Alto.

South L.A. is a "food desert," with few supermarkets and a lot of land in between them. The South Central Diet is a video that chronicles the extraordinary efforts of Healthy Eating Active Communities (HEAC) student Lae Schmidt to obtain the quality and variety of fruits and vegetables she desires.   

Designed for Disease: the Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes published by California Center for Public Health Advocacy, PolicyLink, and the UCLA Center for Public Health Research.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published Ten Ways to Get Healthy Local Foods into Low Income Neighborhoods.

Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group conducted study Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago.

California Center for Public Health Advocacy published Searching for Healthy Food: The Food Landscape in California Cities and Counties (January 2007)

The Food Trust provides nutrition education services to communities through seasonal farmers' markets and school markets. The Trust also helps to expand the supply of food resources available to low-income communities through advocacy, by creating model programs, and by undertaking research studies on food disparities and disseminating their findings to government officials and policy-makers.

The California Convergence aims to promote learning, synergy and collaboration among community programs that work to improve community health by improving food and physical activity environments.

PolicyLink published Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities through Food Retailing. (Fall 2005)

Community Food Security Coalition published A Guide to Community Food Projects.

Network for a Healthy California - GIS Map Viewer is an interactive, internet-based Geographic Information System (GIS) that allows users to view and query mapped nutrition data.

Farmers' Markets 

List of San Mateo County certified farmers' markets 

The Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association operates and promotes Certified Farmers' Markets in local communities throughout Northern California.

A Simple Guide for Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) of Food Stamp Benefits at California Farmers' Markets Using a Central Point of Service (POS) Device and Market Scrip.

Fun, Food and Farmers. Secrets of Success from a Leading Market Manager.

Improving the Physical Activity Environment

JointUse.org is a website created by the Joint Use Statewide Task Force (JUST) to ensure that all children have a safe space to play and be active within easy reach.  The website features information on joint use policies, joint use checklist and agreement templates, funding resources, and success stories.  It even has a joint use locator where you put in your address and it gives you the contact information of organizations near you that currently have joint use agreements with other organizations in their area. 

The Implementing Safe Routes to School in Low-income Schools and Communities Resource Guide, developed by the Safe Routes Partnership, focuses on the challenges unique to creating safe routes for children to walk and bike to school in low-income communities and highlights practices used around the country to improve student safety in low-income communities. 

Public Health Law & Policy (PHLP) has just released a toolkit that helps communities and school districts work together to develop joint use agreements, increasing access to recreational facilities on school grounds. 

Public Health Law and Policy-Healthy Planning and Raimi Associates wrote How to Create and Implement Healthy General Plans

Institute of Medicine published Does the Built Environment Influence Physical Activity: Examining the Evidence (January 2005). Available for purchase.

Models for Change: Lessons for Creating Active Communities is a document published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The report offers eleven case studies and describes the policy change process such as how to go about building a united front in developing a countywide network of bikeways or multi-use trails.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation wrote the report Healthy Places, Healthy People. Promoting Public Health and Physical Activity Through Community Design.

Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC) is a partnership of over 90 groups working for a sustainable and socially just Bay Area.

Four Bay Area regional agencies: Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) have joined forces in a Joint Policy Committee to encourage focused growth through a voluntary, incentive-based program called FOCUS.

Building Health into San Mateo County Cities Toolkit - This document highlights local tools developed or adapted by the San Mateo County Health System, in
collaboration with San Mateo County cities and other County agencies, and provides recommendations for how to include health from the beginning of
planning processes.

This research brief by Active Living Research presents an overview of findings demonstrating the potential impact of infrastructure investments and other transportation programs on walking and bicycling for transportation, and on related health outcomes.  It focuses on public transit, greenways and trails, school-related infrastructure and programs, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and efforts to manage car traffic.  Click to view research brief. 

Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) has established a Built Environment Work Group which aims to work with communities where social and environmental conditions contribute to a disproportionate burden of disease. This Work Group is made up of people from participating health departments, with support from BARHII staff.

The California Convergence aims to promote learning, synergy and collaboration among community programs that work to improve community health by improving food and physical activity environments.

Prevention Institute published The Built Environment and Health: 11 Profiles of Neighborhood Transformation which describes the geographic area and changes made to that area; the process required to implement changes, any documented impacts, lessons learned, supporting research that documents the connection between the built environment and health, and next steps for action.