Healthy Food Access

This summer I have been volunteering with the American Heart Association in New York City as the communications intern. One of the American Heart Association’s main focuses is spreading the word about the importance of eating healthy. Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables can help lower your risk for heart disease, stroke and many other illnesses. However, 1.2 million New York residents live in communities with limited access to affordable healthy food.

On Tuesday, we held an event in Bowling Green Park to educate New Yorkers about the barriers to healthy food access and to inspire change. In order to make the information easier to understand, we made it into a game. Participants were assigned a character and were told to either take a step forward or backward on the board depending on different factors or traits relating to their specific character’s ability to access healthy foods. For example, a volunteer would read a card that said something like “You are a registered nurse, take two steps forward” or “Your criminal record is making it hard to find a job, take three steps backward.” After they played the game, we encouraged participants to advocate for funding to improve access to healthy food and write a letter to their councilmember.

I learned a lot about the many different circumstances and situations that impact a person’s ability to access healthier foods. Factors like transportation, disability, college education, native language and numerous others have a huge impact on whether a person can readily access high quality healthy foods. Therefore, New York Residents that do not have healthy food access are more prone to obesity and poor heart health. So many people walking through the park participated in our game, learned a lot about health food access in New York City and took action by writing a letter to their councilmember. I was very inspired by the amount of people who participated and were passion about making a change. Healthy food access is a right for all New York residents of any age and background.

See how you can help at https://www.yourethecure.org/newyorkcity