Community Health Improvement Plan Increases Accessibility to Healthy Foods for Austin Residents

Cindy Kotrady is a 27-year-old Austin resident. She lives in what is known as a “food desert,” and does not have walking access to a healthy food distribution point from her home. Kotrady represents the average Austin resident. For many living in Austin, limited access to healthy food distribution points is simply a harsh reality.

However, new implementations put in place by the Austin/Travis County community health plan will make it easier for all residents to access healthy foods, according to Shannon Jones, the Chair of the Austin/Travis County Community Health Improvement Planning (CHIP) program, at a meeting about the results of the plan’s first year.

Many Austin residents now have increased access to community gardens within walking distance from their homes, particularly in East Austin, according to Jones. Further, according to Stephanie Ondrias, director of events at the Texas Health Institute, a number of Austin eligible Austin residents will begin receiving food assistance programs within the next year.

Austin City Council met on Oct. 29 to discuss the progress that Austin’s health plan has made in its first year. The meeting reviewed the progress of the four core priority areas emphasized in the plan: reduction of chronic disease, access to healthy foods, transportation and access to primary and mental health/behavioral care.

According to the CHIP, each priority area has seen changes and improvements over the past year. However, the primary change that affects Austin residents most has occurred in the field of access to healthy foods.

Jones said most progress has been made in healthy food accessibility. CHIP aimed to simply make nutritious foods an easier and more viable option for Austin/Travis County residents of all incomes, according to Jones.

Becky Pastner, the Community Fund Program Officer for St. David’s Foundation, said the attempt to make nutritious food more accessible to Austin residents could be divided into two categories: food assistance programs and increasing distribution points.

“One in three Austin residents live in what’s called a food desert,” Pastner said. “That basically means they don’t have a grocery store or food source within one mile of their homes. So, they turn to what’s convenient, which is fast food.”

According to Imagine Austin, five ZIP codes in Austin are considered “food deserts.” Further, the Human Health and Services Department reports that 51 percent of Travis County restaurants are fast-food restaurants, meaning Travis County residents are more likely to turn to nearby fast-food places instead of healthy alternatives located farther away.

Ondrias said the Health Institute has worked in partnership with the Austin/Travis County government to bring food assistance programs such as SNAP to ZIP codes in Austin currently not eligible.

“We’re working on mapping where Austin residents are not receiving food assistance,” Ondrias said. “And we hope to fix this within the year.”

CHIP’s new implementations will affect more than just lower income residents, though. The city has taken big strides in creating more community gardens available to all Austin residents.

Megan Cermak, a representative for Austin Central Health, said community gardens were a big part of bringing healthy food closer to residents.

“We’d like to have community gardens scattered throughout all of the 10 districts,” said Cermak. “We’re at eight right now and are working on the last two.”

Meredith Gray, the community gardens coordinator for the Austin Parks and Recreational Department, confirmed that her department was planning for two new community gardens.

“City Council just approved us for another two acres of land to create a new community garden,” Gray said. “We have six landscape architects designing it and hope to have it open within the next year.”

Community gardens supply Austin residents with vegetables and fruit and nut trees, according to Gray.

“We hope that as we create more gardens, more people will become aware of them and use them,” Gray said.

Gray’s hopes seem to have come to fruition. Kotrady, an East Austin resident, said she visits community gardens regularly.

“It’s really great having an opportunity to get healthy food so close,” Kotrady said. “Produce can get so expensive here and most grocery stores in this area don’t have that fresh of produce.”

When asked about CHIP, Kotrady said she had heard of the program and believed that it would produce a good result in Austin.

“I’m completely on board with bringing more healthy food to Austin,” Kotrady said. “Particularly in this area, you don’t see a lot of nutritious options.”

Although CHIP has been in effect only since June 2013, the program is in the midst of changing policies in Austin/Travis County to increase prevalence and accessibility to nutritious food choices for all residents.

“We may have found the solution to Austin’s food desert and health issues,” Becky Pastner said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

Over a year has passed since Austin/Travis County’s implementation of its plan for improving community health. The assessment of year one reveals that although the community has yet to achieve its ultimate goals, the city is in the middle of significant change.

“We still have a ways to go, but we’ve come a long way this past year,” Jones said.

Austin City Council plans on meeting again in March 2015 to discuss further changes made in CHIP over the past quarter.