A Look at the Baltimore Healthy Stores Project The Baltimore Healthy Stores project, led by Joel Gittlesohn, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Human Nutrition, seeks to improve access to healthy foods among low-income residents at risk for obesity and diet-related disease. The Center for a Livable Future has put together two brief, reader-friendly resources describing the project: Baltimore Healthy Stores: Improving healthy food choices for Baltimore City neighborhoods and Baltimore Healthy Stores: Results and Implications.  The project used in-store taste tests and cooking demonstrations along with coupons, posters and other materials to increase awareness and education about nutrition. During and after the intervention, participating stores sold more of the promoted healthier items such as low-sugar cereals, baked chips and whole wheat bread than comparison stores.
“The Baltimore Healthy Stores project is one of the most robust, comprehensive interventions of its type,” said Anne Palmer, Eating for the Future program director at the Center for a Livable Future. “What’s really unique about this project is that its goals are based on research identifying specific foods that are detrimental to the study population’s health, and making healthier versions available in neighborhood corner stores and supermarkets.”
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