by Lisa Codispoti, Senior Advisor
and Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst
National Women’s Law Center
This post is part of a weekly series on Women and Health Reform.
The challenges posed by our health care system can be overwhelming, and in past blog posts we’ve tended to focus mostly on what is going wrong with health care. But this week, our health care glass is half-full!
A recent move by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council has reminded us that strategies to improve health can be simple, creative, and relatively inexpensive. Soon, many more NYC residents will have access to the fresh fruits and vegetables that are essential to a healthy diet, thanks to the city’s new “Green Carts” initiative. It is no secret that a healthy diet helps maintain a healthy body weight and reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. But nearly three out of four women don’t eat the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, and about a quarter of all American women are obese. It’s true that Americans should eat healthier, but have you ever tried to find salad ingredients in an inner-city neighborhood? On a good day, you might be able to pick up an unbelievably expensive half-limp head of iceberg lettuce at one corner store and a single bruised tomato at another, but in too many urban neighborhoods fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to come by. This is especially true for neighborhoods with a majority of low-income residents, where supermarkets are scarcer.
New York City’s initiative creates 1,000 new licenses for green grocer carts that sell fresh fruits and vegetables, and designates the licenses for neighborhoods that have high rates of obesity and diabetes, and where consumption of fresh produce is low.
Will green carts in the inner-city solve the health care crisis? Of course not. But they’ll make it easier for low-income women and their families to maintain a healthy diet and lead healthier lives, which is a very good thing. The health care crisis is a giant, but the steps to address it don’t all have to be complicated or expensive. We thank Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Council for this positive little reminder of what is going right with American health care.
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