Editor’s Note: Every week, Breaking Bronx features a health-related story, event or tidbit as part of an online expansion of our Be Healthy! column.

Last week, nearly 200 people gathered at Tremont Park in the Bronx to participate in a health fair sponsored by the Community Heath Network (CHN). The event was in conjunction with a nation-wide effort to celebrate National Health Center Week.

The theme of this year’s National Health Center Week is “Celebrating America’s Health Centers: Powering Healthier Communities.” The theme is about underscoring the importance of community health centers and the healthcare they provide, according to a press release.

CHN organized the health to raise awareness about the mission of community health centers across the country and to increase access to affordable and high quality health care.

“This event [sheds a] spotlight on the important things [community health centers] are doing in our communities,” Katrin Maier of CHN said. “[We’re] celebrating the community.”

Several health organizations and programs, such as Ageonics Medical and the Women, Infants and Children program, disseminated health information and offered health expertise and health screenings to participants of the event.

The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) was there to promote exercise and nutrition through a “Health Bucks” program which would give low-income families an opportunity to buy fresh and affordable produce.

For every $5 a person spends using Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) or food stamps they will get a Health Buck, which is worth $2. Those health bucks can be used to buy fruits and vegetables at farmer’s markets.

“[We’re] trying to increase food and vegetable access in low-income neighborhoods,” Sarah Macleod of NYSDOH said.

The Tremont Branch of the New York Public Library was also at the event to “provide outreach to the community,” Library Manager Sandra Pugh said.

State Senator Gustavo Rivera also attended the event to support CHN and the mission of community health centers.

“We have to do everything we can to make the Bronx healthier,” he said. “The Bronx is the unhealthiest county in the state … we have to change that.”

Last year, a Robert Wood Foundation study marked the Bronx as the unhealthiest county in the New York state. It showed that 26 percent of the adults living in the borough are in poor or fair health compared to 16 percent statewide and 10 percent nationwide.

In response to this study, Rivera launched the Bronx Changing Attitudes Now (CAN), an attitude-adjusting health initiative that promotes the types of behaviors that lead to healthier lifestyles.

Rivera is currently campaigning for re-election in the State Senate.