Center for a Livable Future and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health representatives to serve on newly announced Baltimore City Food Policy Task Force Research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has shown that Baltimore’s food environment lacks in access to convenient, healthy foods. In an effort to increase this access and decrease the city’s rates of malnutrition, obesity and cardiovascular disease, Mayor Sheila Dixon has commissioned a Food Policy Task Force. The task force, which will begin meeting in December, will release a final report with recommendations in Spring 2009. From the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Steve Teret, director of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health; Associate Professor Joel Gittlesohn of the Center for Human Nutrition; and Anne Palmer, CLF’s Eating for the Future program director. CLF will serve on the panel, along with Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein and other community business and government stakeholders. The task force will examine the barriers to access of healthy food and develop a plan of action for decreasing disparities, increasing the affordability of healthy food and increasing community awareness of health information. “There are too many corners of our city where it is easier to find tobacco and alcohol than fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Mayor Dixon in a statement announcing the task force. “We need to create many more opportunities around the city for residents to eat and live better.” CLF-sponsored research that contributed to the development of the task force includes: A study by Dr. Manuel Franco addressed the association between the availability and price of food and diabetes and obesity. As part of his research, Dr. Franco spent five months identifying the type and location of food stores, interviewing store managers, and collecting data on the availability and price of foods in 240 stores located in the Baltimore neighborhoods. A community food assessment (conducted by CLF and Operation ReachOut Southwest) in southwest Baltimore found that three-quarters of stores sold no fruit, and two-thirds sold no vegetables. Ninety-five percent of respondents who reside in this community do not eat the recommended five fruits and vegetables per day, and half said they were sometimes or often unable to buy healthy foods due to cost. Dr. Gittlesohn’s Baltimore Healthy Stores project has been instrumental in showing the importance of corner stores as a food source in Baltimore communities and promoting the availability of healthier options in corner stores and supermarkets. | 
