For National Nutrition Month, the Bronx Bodega Partners Workgroup is running a “Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh” campaign encouraging Bronx residents to purchase healthier foods and drinks at 24 local bodegas.

Since 2016, the Bronx Bodega Partners Workgroup – consisting of community organizations, health systems and government programs – has worked to increase the amount of healthy food and drinks consumed by people in the Bronx by partnering with local bodegas to increase access to healthy choices.

This campaign challenges the onslaught of marketing of unhealthy food often targeted towards communities of color through a vibrant, bilingual media campaign promoting fruits, vegetables and other healthy choices on bus shelters and electronic displays throughout the Bronx.

Besides the outdoor advertisements, Bronx residents will also receive a phone alert when they are near one of the 24 participating bodegas. When clicked on, this alert will show them a coupon for a free bottle of water and a map with directions on how to get to a “Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh” bodega.

The coalition is working hard to improve access to healthy food in Bronx communities.  This work will take everyone working together. Here are three ways you can lend your support:

1. As a consumer, we need you to raise your voice to demand healthy options at your local bodegas and support the changes made. Visit one of these local bodega partners in Norwood to find healthy options:

1. • Tita’s Mini Mart – 137 E. Gun Hill Rd.
   • Green Earth Deli Grocery – 382 E. 205th St.
2. Local government can push back against these misleading advertisements and fulfill its responsibility to protect the public from false information. Contact your elected officials and ask what they are doing to make sure healthy food is being marketed throughout the Bronx.
3. Ask your local elected officials to support and fund the “Don’t Stress, Eat Fresh” Bronx bodega campaign so honest and healthy information is shared with our neighbors, friends, and families.

Elizabeth Spurrell-Huss is the Director of Community Education for Montefiore Health System’s Office of Community and Population Health.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.