By Crystal Swann
July 4, 2011

Ten, or even five years ago, the idea of a mayor appointing a citywide “food policy director” would have people scratching their heads. But with obesity in children and the general population reaching epidemic proportions, it’s a growing trend, and Baltimore, under the leadership of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is leading the way with its innovative Food Policy Initiative. During a June 21 workshop hosted on the campus of Johns Hopkins University (the city’s research partner in the initiative), Baltimore Food Policy Director Holly Freishtat presented the key components of the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative (BFPI), the overall goal of which is to establish Baltimore as a national leader and model for the development of sustainable local food systems. BFPI works to increase access to healthy, affordable food in “food deserts” — generally defined as areas with limited access to affordable nutritious food, particularly in lower income neighborhoods and communities. In Baltimore, 40 percent of the population is below 125 percent of the poverty line, and with low automobile ownership, grocery stores and other sources of healthy food are effectively inaccessible to many residents. To address this challenge BFPI has employed a number of strategies, including:

• Promoting farmers markets in “food deserts.” The city secured a change in the state’s farmers market policy to accept WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) vouchers, and has also worked to simplify the permitting process for farmers markets.

• Promoting urban farming on vacant land in food deserts.

• Expanding healthy food retailing in food deserts, by creating a virtual supermarket where residents can order groceries online and pick them up the next day at the nearest library, school or City Department of Social Services office.

• Developing “Get Fresh Baltimore,” a citywide healthy eating campaign including public service announcements and an educational ad campaign featuring artwork from 250 Baltimore elementary school students.

At Johns Hopkins, researcher John Gittelsohn, PhD, of the university’s Center for Human Nutrition, has been supporting the BFPI effort to expand food retailing in Baltimore’s food deserts. As lead investigator for the “Healthy Stores” project, Gittelsohn has identified more than 1,000 small food stores (commonly called “corner stores”) in Baltimore. Corners stores outnumber larger food stores in Baltimore by twenty to one, and tend to be the most accessible food option in food deserts. Healthy Stores aims to get corner stores to stock healthy food options like low-sugar, whole grain cereals. These types of items are less risky for small food stores to stock, since they have a much longer shelf life than perishable items like fruit and vegetables. And given that 80 percent of such corner stores are privately owned by Korean Americans, the Healthy Stores Project has developed language-appropriate educational materials for store owners.

Another facet of this project is the Baltimore Healthy Carryouts (BHC) initiative. As food deserts typically have as many carryout restaurants as corner stores, the goal of BHC is to get carryouts to revise their menus to label healthy food and beverage options — and ultimately to offer more healthy food and beverage options for consumers.

The Center for a Livable Future also supports BFPI. As Director Anne Palmer noted, the Center (also based at Johns Hopkins) has launched a number of educational/outreach programs, including “Meatless Monday” in Baltimore City Public Schools, and “Baltimore Food and Faith,” a partnership of faith communities, religious schools, farmers, and other organizations working to raise awareness of and find solutions to problems with current food systems in the greater Baltimore area. Overall, the Center’s role, according to Palmer, is to map the food system statewide, with a special focus on Baltimore city; evaluate programs or interventions to increase access to healthy, affordable foods, and create and identify best practices; and train the next generation of public health and food systems leaders.

For more information:

Baltimore Food Policy Initiative: http://www.baltimorecity.gov/Government/AgenciesDepartments/Planning/BaltimoreFoodPolicyInitiative.aspx

Healthy Stores Project: http://www.healthystores.org/index.html

Center For a Livable Future: http://www.jhsph.edu/clf/