Community / Project Resources

Engaging Mobile Markets to Improve Access to Healthy Foods in the Urban Core

By Truman Medical Center

Truman Medical Center presented this poster at the NWA Annual Conference in April 2017. As part of the CPHMC project, Truman worked with mobile markets to improve access to healthy foods. Other activities included increasing stores promoting healthy foods, stores that accept WIC, and working with partners to make prescriptions for fruits and vegetables. .

Truman Medical Center (TMC)-WIC partnered with Children’s Mercy, the Linwood Family YMCA, community members and organizations involved in the coalition work of Weighing In and the Healthy Lifestyles Initiative (HLI) on a project called Partners 4 Health. The project sought to make healthy food more accessible and to better connect healthcare, WIC and community resources and supports. The targeted area for the project, the Linwood Corridor (within Jackson County), faces significant challenges, particularly in key drivers of health, like poverty and educational attainment. Rates of healthy behaviors are not at recommended levels for this area, county or state. The Linwood Corridor is considered a “food desert.” The rate of stores that accept SNAP is high, double state and county rates. However, the rate of WIC authorized stores is considerably lower than state rates. Within the Linwood Corridor are many active community partners, including a vibrant YMCA that serves as a community hub. Some unique resources are an active library branch with wellness programming; a new full-service mobile market, and a fruit and vegetable mobile market that service the area. WIC is co-located at a health clinic, Hope Family Care Center, in the heart of the targeted area. The project sought to expand access to healthy foods through placement and promotion strategies with mobile markets and grocery stores. We aim to increase the number of WIC authorized stores to expand access and fill an important gap. Through our coalition, we are working to align multiple agencies’ efforts to change policies and practices to support healthy behaviors, and we are building on our past work to improve community clinical linkages through our Healthy Lifestyles Initiative framework.

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Date Added
December 5, 2017

Citation
Truman Medical Center (2017) Engaging Mobile Markets to Improve Access to Healthy Foods in the Urban Core. Available online: https://thewichub.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/2017/12/Truman-Poster-Final.pdf