Project CAFE / Proyecto CAFE

Community Action on Food Environments

Acción Comunitaria para los Ambientes Alimentarios

In many communities it is difficult to exercise healthy food choices due to the lack of affordable, available, and accessible healthy food sources, which may result in higher than average rates of overweight. With the growing concern for the human and economic costs associated with overweight and its potential serious health consequences, the need for innovative, collaborative, long-term interventions using creative strategies at the community and school levels are urgently needed.

CFJ and partners established Project CAFE in 2003 as a school and community-directed project to conduct a community food assessment and to design, develop, and implement community-directed activities related to food and health in low-income, communities of color in Los Angeles. Working with partners in three Los Angeles neighborhoods, Project CAFE has mapped food resources, surveyed local food stores, and will survey school food environments. Armed with knowledge learned from these assessments, participants are working collectively for improvements in neighborhood and school food environments.

Project CAFE is a collaborative project to:

1.) increase awareness and knowledge of the health disparities related to lack of access to health-promoting foods and

2.) develop community-driven strategies for environmental and policy change that will lead to improved nutrition environments that reduce risk factors for overweight and diabetes.

This project is supported by grant number 1 R25 ES012578 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), NIH. These contents do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIEHS or NIH.

Project CAFE partners include:

Center for Food & Justice, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College
Esperanza Community Housing Corporation
The Healthy School Food Coalition
Blazers Youth Services Community Club Inc.
University of Southern California
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles