As of spring 2010 LEJ is launching a new community needs assessment and program design with students from the San Francisco State University MPH program; please check back regularly for news and updates.

Bayview Hunters Point residents are hospitalized more often than residents of other San Francisco neighborhoods for nearly every disease. One of the major reasons for our community’s poor health is the lack of access to fresh food — with supermarket flight, transportation barriers, and a super-abundance of fast food chains, corner stores end up serving as the primary food source.

In 2002, LEJ Youth conducted a community-based assessment of corner stores in the Bayview Hunters Point community. Wanting to get a better understanding of how tobacco and alcohol intensify many of the environmental health issues already impacting residents, the youth set out to map out how the tobacco industry targets youth and communities of color in areas like the Bayview.

They found that while there were only two food stores in the neighborhood, located far from public transportation, there are an abundance of corner stores selling alcohol, tobacco, and overpriced poor quality processed foods. Furthermore, 75% of these "junk" foods are Kraft and Nabisco products, companies owned by tobacco giants RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris. Less than 5% of foods sold in the community was fresh produce.

As a result of these findings, SF Supervisor Sophie Maxwell asked LEJ to establish a working group to address barriers to food access in the Bayview; the result was LEJ’s Good Neighbor program. LEJ Youth interns recruited merchants to become “Good Neighbors” by increasing their store stock of fresh produce and diminishing tobacco and alcohol advertising, and the youth educated the BVHP community about the importance of healthy eating.

In 2007, Good Neighbor was adopted as a statewide model via AB 2384, the Healthy Food Purchase Program.

Resources:

We have published a Good Neighbor Best Practices Guide (PDF order form) for communities that are interested in starting a corner store conversion program of their own.

Healthy Corner Stores Network
The Healthy Corner Stores Network (HCSN) promotes efforts to bring healthier foods into corner stores in low-income and underserved communities. The HCSN brings together community members, local government staff, nonprofits, funders, and others across the country to share best practices, lessons learned, and new approaches to common challenges. HCSN activities include quarterly conference calls, in-person meetings at national conferences, mini-grants, and this website and a listserve. It is convened by the Community Food Security Coalition, The Food Trust, and Public Health Law & Policy.