This morning, the Council unanimously passed the Staple Food ordinance authored by Cameron Gordon. This is a major step forward for equitable access to healthy foods in our city, and Im proud to have been part of it (with a great team that included Kristen Klingler Arnott, Nora Gordon, Russ Rooster Henry and the Homegrown Minneapolis Food Council, and many, many others). I can walk to a full-service grocery store, with plenty of healthy options, two blocks from my house. I can bike a short distance to the Seward Coop and get some of the best fruits and veggies in the world. This ordinance says that everyone in our city, no matter where they live, should expect to have these kinds of options. It says that if a store is telling the federal government that its a place where low-income folks can spend their food assistance dollars, that store should be a place where people can find real food. Not just food like substances, as one of the ordinances supporters put it. Weve seen that when we raise the standards of the foods available to people, their eating habits and health improve. The improvements to the WIC program (which helped inspire these new Minneapolis standards) have been shown to have improved eating and health in low-income communities. And we have more local examples. A high school student who testified in favor of the ordinance at the hearing last week spoke eloquently about the improvements in eating habits among her peers after the major recent improvements in school lunches at the Minneapolis Public Schools. Its pretty clear: if we make healthy foods available to people, they eat better. And when people eat better, they live longer, healthier, happier lives. I think this new ordinance is going to have exactly that effect. This is a big win - for Cam and me, for the Health Department, and for the health of the people of Minneapolis.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:48:08 +0000
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