Ideally, this would be on designated days in a central location, like a public park, and food stamps could also be used to buy the produce there. This would require a coordinated effort by the mayor, board of health, parks and recreation department, social services and zoning staff to achieve, to ensure that farmers and other small producers were not hampered by red tape in their access to the community. After that, a second step would be to create a public health campaign in the schools, coordinated by the city's board of education, principals, and health education teachers. Schools would work with local vendors to increase the amount of fruit and vegetable-related offerings in school lunches city-wide, vending machines would be banned that sold unhealthy and highly processed snacks, and agreements with fast food companies to sponsor school activities would also be banned....
Students would receive increased comprehensive education about
nutrition in the
classroom. Then, the third step would be for the city department of health and local farmers to work with local retailers like supermarkets to more prominently display and promote local fruits and vegetables, ideally at a slightly discounted rate (to reflect the fact that less gas was used to
transport the product to the market). Finally, local low-income residents could be encouraged to grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables. Again, working with zoning and parks department staff, community garden areas could be provided for residents who applied and agreed to grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables for free, in exchange for tending garden plots organically. This would promote city beautification as well as…
