PROJECT DESCRIPTION

East Los Angeles is a food desert. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, its population suffers high rates of obesity-related chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and stroke. It has some of the highest rates of childhood obesity (32.2%) in the county.

As part of a project funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Public Matters worked with the UCLA Center for Population Health + Health Disparities (CPHHD) to increase the availability and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables in this under-served area. One of 10 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Centers for Population Health + Health Disparities (CPHHD) across the country, “Family and Neighborhood Interventions To Reduce Heart Disease Risk in East L.A.” sought to reduce cardiovascular disease risk among Latinos in East Los Angeles. The subcontract with CPHHD was under Grant No 1P50-105188-01 from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Public Matters’ work was central to Proyecto MercadoFRESCO, CPHHD’s neighborhood-based intervention, which addressed healthy food access by implementing Market Makeovers – a comprehensive, participatory, community-based strategy that involves the physical transformation of existing corner stores; the addition of fresh produce; business training for storeowners/operators; education and community engagement; and social marketing to change health behaviors and increase fresh fruit and vegetable consumption. Local youth and residents played a central role in the hands-on work of Proyecto MercadoFRESCO. They implemented the solution, and in doing so took ownership of it.

CONTEXT

Dark. Dirty. Dilapidated.

The words rattled off. A description of a horror movie? Not exactly. Making its first visit to Yash La Casa Market, our class of high school students from the East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy (ELARA) at Esteban Torres High School was doing a simple observational exercise: pick three words to describe the market. Yash was cluttered. Its walls a drab gray, windows covered with bars. Ads for beer, chips, and energy drinks plastered the store inside and out. Greeting you at the entrance was the ubiquitous “wall of chips,” a display rack offered for “free” by a global food and beverage company in return for its prominent placement. The students’ words rang clear: We don’t want to be here, let alone shop here.

Yash oozed that corner store aura: Buy and leave.

Repeat this exercise at virtually any corner store and you’d get similar results. Therein lies the complexity and challenge of Market Makeovers. We aren’t just making physical changes to a corner store like Yash; we’re trying to shift the cultural perception of the corner store from public health blight to community resource.

ENGAGEMENT

Public Matters led the education and social marketing efforts, training students from two local high schools, East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy (ELARA) at Esteban Torres High School and the School of Communications New Media + Technology (CNMT) at Theodore Roosevelt High School.

Students:

• created a multi-faceted, grassroots social marketing campaign to promote healthy food consumption as well as the newly transformed markets →
• performed hands-on work transforming the selected stores →
• served as community health advocates on behalf of the project’s efforts →

The goal of Proyecto MercadoFRESCO’s education and project-based curriculum was to make learning fun, participatory and to extend what happened in the classroom into the community. Media production is a method of critical inquiry and creative commentary, which enabled the students to examine and explore their environment. It allowed us to talk about diet, nutrition, advertising, why East L.A. is populated with numerous fast food options and so few healthy ones – and why this is a social justice issue. Before we met them, none of the students had ever heard of the term “food desert.” Yet all of them were intimately familiar with its consequences.  All the students knew someone who is obese, overweight or had diabetes. Where you live, how much money you make, and your race determines health outcomes. Proyecto MercadoFRESCO enabled the students to address these health disparities.

COMMUNITY LIAISONS – Market Makeovers: NextGen Leaders

Community Liaisons are emerging adults who began working with Proyecto MercadoFRESCO as high school students at ELARA and CNMT. Beginning in 2013, thanks to an LA2050 award Public Matters received from the Goldhirsh Foundation, the Community Liaisons transitioned from high school students to paid community leaders and project contributors.  Mostly in college and experts in the Market Makeover process, the Community Liaisons led the store transformations in Boyle Heights. They, the dynamic and passionate leaders who  grew up with Market Makeovers, embodied the project’s goals. For them, the change Market Makeovers strives for wasn’t transformative; it was personal.

Community Liaisons received training in store operations, marketing, graphic design and visual literacy. They assisted the stores with retail presentation and merchandising, creating in-store graphics and displays and social marketing campaigns to promote healthy food behaviors. They planned, promoted, and conducted community events: public presentations in schools and local organizations, cooking demos at the markets, and video screenings. They had access to local leaders and participated in community meetings and decision-making processes. They were the public faces of the project and the young leaders supporting East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights towards a healthier 2050.

IMPACT & LEGACY