Pasadena Healthy Retail Program

History of Pasadena Healthy Retail Program

Since 1998, the Nutrition & Physical Activity Program aims to provide collaborative and innovative strategies to improve the health conditions for the residents of Pasadena. Residents of zip codes 91101, 91103 and 91106 in Northwest Pasadena have a higher prevalence of childhood obesity and less access to healthy food and beverage choices.

The Healthy Retail Program was established to identify local corner stores that have the capacity to provide fresh produce to the community and provide materials, services and technical assistance to become a cornerstone of community health. In response to low scores on the Communities of Excellence in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (CX3) assessment tool, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) mini-grant project was initiated for qualifying corner stores and provide funds for façade improvements and energy-efficient refrigeration to increase the capacity to provide fresh produce to the community.

Since January 2018, mini-grants were awarded to the Corner Market, Los Robles Market, Lake Avenue Market & Groceries and Argentina Market. Each storeowner worked closely with our Healthy Retail staff to install updated refrigeration and strategize methods to increase the visibility and promotion of fresh produce.

Today, we continue to assist our partner stores with technical assistance, regular assessments and collaborations to improve healthy food and beverage consumption for Northwest Pasadena.

Goals

To assist in providing updated, energy efficient refrigeration for our healthy retail partner stores;
To provide technical assistance to promote the availability of fresh produce for the community;
To increase the consumption of healthy food and beverages to improve health outcomes;
To develop policy and environmental initiatives that support healthy food access and food security for low-income communities in Pasadena; and

To increase federal assistance programming for our local corner stores.