February 2018 Newsletter
Promoting Healthy and Affordable Food Choices
Improving Access to Healthy Foods is not Enough
Get Healthy SMC promotes access to healthy fresh food. Most
recently, with the support of Get Healthy SMC partners, Daly City
adopted the Kids’ Healthy Meals Ordinance which will require
restaurants to replace sugary beverages with healthier options
such as water and low-fat milk as the default beverage in
children’s meals. Read more about this policy victory in this
month’s case study, Are We
Sweet Enough? Yet we understand that expanding access to
healthy foods is not enough. Affordable access to fresh food is
key to achieve a sustainable and equitable food system. In an
effort to increase access to healthy, affordable food, Get
Healthy SMC partnered with Pie
Ranch, a farm located in Pescadero, to pilot a healthy meal
kit program with local low-income families. Pie Ranch was able to
offer discounted meal kits for a family of four. The families
reported that they enjoyed the opportunity to try new recipes
with local, organic, seasonal ingredients and would definitely
purchase them in the future, if it remained within their budget.
2018 SMC Legislative Platform
On February 13th the Board of Supervisors passed a
legislative platform to guide the County’s policy priorities
for 2018. Key priorities identified include transportation
funding, affordable housing and homelessness, parks funding,
cannabis regulation, preserving the Affordable Care Act and
continuing to support coordinated care and in-home supportive
services.
Supervisors requested a couple of changes to the draft
platform presented, one of them being increased support for bail
reform. The platform will not come back for public discussion and
will be finalized based on the Supervisors’ input. We will share
the final version on social media once available. The platform
aligns well with Get Healthy San Mateo County’s priorities to
build healthy communities by addressing equitable opportunities
to financial security, housing stability, education and complete
neighborhoods. Notably, support for limiting access to harmful
sugary drinks was included in support of making the healthy
choice, the easy choice. This builds on Daly City’s leadership on
passing the first Default Beverage
Kids Healthy Meals ordinance earlier this year, which removes
sugary drinks and sodas as the default beverage in kids’ meals
