Food Day, And Food Ways to Celebrate: October 29, 2016 is Phoenix Food Day, and there are a few food ways to celebrate with the Maricopa County Food System Coalition. The first is to join in a special day at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, the official site of Phoenix Food Day, on October 29 from 9:00am-2:00pm. Last year nearly 3,000 turned out… Continue reading →

Good Food: One Click Away: Hippocrates is famous for the phrase, “let food be thy medicine.” Through goodfoodfinderaz.com, Local First Arizona Foundation is providing directions to your closest dispensary. Good Food Finder currently tracks 141 farms, 69 farmers markets , 65 community gardens, 27 Community Supported Agriculture operations, and 18 community kitchens. It has details on 110 school gardens. Based… Continue reading →

Get Dialed In: Health Webinars on Demand: Health improvement efforts ranging from community gardens to care coordination innovations are developing across the state of Arizona, making now an important time to share those stories. Thanks to a partnership with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, Vitalyst Health Foundation is helping to connect municipalities with case studies and learning sessions on how to approach healthy… Continue reading →

2015 Innovation and Medical Assistance Grant Funded Partners: Innovation Grants St. Luke’s Health Initiatives’ 2015 Innovation Grant funded partners are: Cultivate South Phoenix (CUSP), receiving $125,000 to transform vacant lots into productive urban gardens and farms through a food hub for production & distribution. This improves local access to fresh and healthy foods, enhances the capacity of local growers to process and distribute produce,… Continue reading →

We Wrote the Book… So You Don’t Have to: Today SLHI is releasing Community Gardens: Your guide to Understanding, Starting and Sustaining a Community Garden in your Neighborhood. Developed in partnership with the Elemental Group, the workbook outlines practical, relevant information for communities of all capacity, skill and ability levels through both step-by-step instructions and expansive resource lists. Frankly, there’s no reason for an… Continue reading →

Get On the Green Map: Unexpectedly good things happen when people get the chance to connect with, learn from, and support each other. At St. Luke’s Health Initiatives, we’ve seen the power of connecting people time and time again. Just last July, a Community Gardens webinar we put together with the Arizona League of Cities and Towns proved the point.… Continue reading →

Arizona is Growing Again: Arizona is back in the growth business – at least as far as community gardens all across the state are concerned. The Arizona League of Cities and Towns and St. Luke’s Health Initiatives partnered to produce the webinar “What About All These Community Gardens.” For the next 30 days, this compelling webinar recording is available… Continue reading →

Build It, Teach It, Change It: “Building new supermarkets in areas that lack them won’t positively change people’s health.” That’s how the nightly news saw things after Health Affairs released a study comparing two Philadelphia neighborhoods. One got a new store selling fresh produce. The other did not. Researchers found no statistically significant improvements in body-mass index (BMI) or fruit and… Continue reading →

2012 Grant and Medical Assistance Archives: Grant Archives St. Luke’s Health Initiatives’ 2012 grants are: Alzheimer’s Association, receiving $45,000 to fund the Alzheimer’s Task Force Planning Group. Area Agency on Aging, receiving $20,000 to develop the “Fall Prevention Tool Kit” tailored for home health care agencies. Arizona Coalition for Military Families, receiving $30,500 to establish guidelines for the “CARE” project. Arizona’s… Continue reading →

Gift Exchange: Lots of vacant, privately-held land in Phoenix isn’t being developed right now. Enter PHX Renews, the effort focused on partnering with communities and negotiating with landowners for community use of those parcels until such time as its owners wish to build. Following in the footsteps of grassroots efforts like Valley of the Sunflowers and The… Continue reading →