Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Lessons from South L.A.: Market Makeovers' New Website Teaches Youth How to 'Green' a Food Desert
Earlier this year, as part of a talk about food and community held at the California Endowment, we learned about the teens in South Los Angeles in a group called HEAC who had been working with Market Makeovers. Their mission is to encourage their peers to try snacking on healthier, fresh alternatives to chips and candy bars, and to help owners of area corner stores convert the space to make the healthy options more appealing and accessible to the clientele.
Good profiles the Market Makeovers team in their blog today, providing readers with more information about the amazing work local high schoolers do in their communities to help "green" the "food desert." Now they have set up an online space that can help others do what they do: "Last week, they launched a new website containing a fun, user-friendly toolkit with amazingly creative ways for teenagers to green the food deserts around them." The site breaks down what a food desert and market makeover are, and explains the benefits.
Making over a market isn't easy; the project involves being educated about why the area is considered a food desert, as well as the politics of business that create a climate for sponsored displays (as in "The Great Wall of Doritos") and why selling fruits and vegetables isn't as profitable. Good explains how their initial makeover worked:
The first store to be converted, the Coronado Market in South Los Angeles, happened to be owned by one of the student’s godparents, so personal connections made it easier to approach the owner. But the response from the community has proved there’s a business opportunity there. “He has seen the sales of the fruits and vegetables increase and heard the customers like it,” says [Market Makeovers founder Mike] Blockstein. “He’s actually going to open a second store and carry over these concepts into another place.”
Support for LAist comes from
The work Market Makeovers' teens do is helping address the very serious issues of health in a neighborhood where obesity and diabetes proves both rampant and deadly.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
Censorship has long been controversial. But lately, the issue of who does and doesn’t have the right to restrict kids’ access to books has been heating up across the country in the so-called culture wars. -
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity.
-
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
Best of LAist