MSU College of Human Medicine and Neighborhood Ventures partner to fight childhood obesity

Increasing access to healthy foods in targeted Grand Rapids neighborhood corner stores is the next step in the Project FIT program, a Michigan State University College of Human Medicine childhood obesity prevention program funded through a $1M grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

The MSU College of Human Medicine is partnering with Neighborhood Ventures (NV) to aid in revitalizing several corner stores in the Buchanan, Campus, Cesar E. Chavez and Dickinson elementary school districts.

The program will offer assistance and funding to corner store owners to increase the availability of nutritious foods in their venues. According to Mark Lewis, executive director of Neighborhood Ventures, this is "the community access piece of Project FIT," a program already providing a variety of educational modules to schools on healthy eating, as well as working to improve school lunch services.

Lewis says this extension of the program potentially addresses an answer to the concern "what happens after the students leave school?"

There are around 44 stores in the targeted neighborhoods. From these stores, "three to six stores will be selected to participate in the pilot program."

Once selected, the MSU and NV teams will work with the store owners on a variety of initiatives including in-store marketing, supplies and equipment that will support the healthy eating educational initiatives being conducted in those schools.  

Lewis hopes to have the first stores operational by the end of May. To learn more about the program, you can visit the MSU website.

Source: Mark Lewis, Executive Director, Neighborhood Ventures
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs Editor