November  2016
 
  
 
Key individuals from a variety of sectors including the health and wellness field, environmental professionals, transportation planners, and community leaders, are gathered today at the South Carolina Transportation and Wellness Summit in Columbia to discuss the role transportation plays to the health and wellness of our communities.
 
Transportation planning is an important and complex piece to the puzzle of food access and security. Low-income neighborhoods often lack a grocery store or other market that sells fresh produce and this lack of access to healthy food is exacerbated when residents in these neighborhoods also lack transportation. But it is not just a question of how to get healthy food to people and people to healthy food in transportation limited communities. It is also a question about how transportation access is related to job access and housing affordability. How it is related to public health, public safety, and air pollution issues.
 
In the 2016 Food Access Update released earlier this year, the SC Food Access Task Force recommended we "build collaborative relationships between healthy food advocates, community planners, and transportation agencies to identify and support a wide range of policies and projects that increase food security in communities with limited transportation." We encourage you to use events like today's Transportation and Wellness Summit and the annual SC Food Access Summit as a starting point for developing these collaborative relationships. Use the energy to build partnerships with other organizations and entities with similar interests in the areas of bike and pedestrian planning, public health, air quality, and transit. Together, advocate for increased funding for transit, for increased priorities for bike and pedestrian planning, and for programs and projects that increase access to healthy food.
 
Food system planning is a collaborative endeavor involving a diverse cross section of entities, organizations, and individuals, in both the public and private sectors. Only together can we find solutions to the challenges to food access and security facing our communities.

In partnership,
Anna Hamilton Lewin
Chief Operating Officer

For more information on the efforts of the SC Food Access Task Force transportation work group, contact Gregory Sprouse.
News
The Renaissance Community Co-op, founded to create and open a grocery store to provide healthy affordable food in Greensboro, North Carolina, recently held a soft opening of its new grocery store earlier this month.... Read More ...»

The Good Food Org Guide, which highlights innovation and dedication in food and agriculture, this year includes 11 South Carolina programs.The third annual guide, which includes 1,000 U.S. food-related...Read More ...»
  

The city of Charleston has partnered with area farmers to launch an Eastside produce stand after the closure last month of the BI-LO at 445 Meeting St. The Eastside neighborhood's closest grocery stores are now more than 1 mile away, and the lack of a neighborhood....Read More ...»
  

The Nature Conservancy is working to promote environmental education through the creation of Nature Works Everywhere gardens. The core principle behind the Gardens program is that gardens model conservation science on a relatable scale....Read More ...»
  

Upcoming Events
November 4-6, 2016  l All Day l Durham, NC
The conference is a once-a-year opportunity to celebrate, champion and build a vibrant, sustainable food system that is good for consumers, good for farmers and farmworkers, and good for the land.  More Information

November 30, 2016 l 6:00pm-8:00pm l Columbia
Join the conversation to advocate and educate for a more localized and equitable food system with members of MFA and Slow Food Columbia, and guest speaker Ashley Paige of End Child Hunger SC.  More Information 

Nov 3rd - May 10th l Catawba & Midlands Regions
These workshops will offer critical opportunities for local peer and resource networking, as well as provide additional instruction on production topics tailored for each region and managed by regional partners.  More Information 

 
Since 2004, we have provided 309 loans for $37.6 million in f inancing
that facilitated more than $235.7 million in community development projects; we
financed 1,348 housing units, 9 healthy food enterprises, 10 community facilities, and 14
c ommunity businesses, creating or retaining 2,929 jobs and providing a safe,
affordable place to call home for 3,370 individuals and families.
 
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