Improving Healthy Food Access

The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University, together with six partner organizations, wants to improve access to fresh, healthy food in New Orleans.

Calling itself the Partnership to Pursue a Food Policy Advisory Committee, the group includes members from Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, the City of New Orleans Health Department, Steps to a Healthier LA/New Orleans, the Louisiana Public Health Institute, the Renaissance Project and the New Orleans Food & Farm Network.

Access to fresh produce was not plentiful prior to Hurricane Katrina; since the levee failures, however, availability has gotten worse. The partnership has been meeting monthly to discuss the issue and brainstorm ways to address the problem. Out of these discussions came the idea to create a Food Policy Advisory Committee.

Based on partnership testimony, the committee drafted a supportive resolution that went on to the New Orleans City Council on Thursday (May 3), and the council unanimously adopted the resolution.

"Similar councils and committees are common throughout the country," says Erin Baker, assistant director of the Prevention Research Center. "People routinely get the message that they should eat more fruits and vegetables. But that message is ineffective if there is a lack of availability in the neighborhood."

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