Access to healthy, fresh foods in our community goes beyond being an amenity for stabilizing our neighborhoods. It’s essential to allow our members to lead healthy lifestyles and minimize nutrition-related problems such as diabetes and obesity. But when Bottom Dollar closed, Sto-Rox slipped even further away from fixing the ‘food gap’ and ‘food desert’ labels it had received in 2013. As concern grew among community members about satisfying their nutritional needs, the MRCDC reached out for alternative ways to bring healthy foods to resident’s tables.
We now partner with Farm Truck Foods, a mobile farm stand that sells a delicious selection of fresh food and other basic goods. Located in the Rite Aid parking lot, Farm Truck Foods operates every Friday from 3-6 p.m., taking numerous forms of payment, including cash, credit, debit and SNAP. Farm Truck Foods will continue past the summer, offering local residents healthy options all year-round.
The MRCDC recognizes that a weekly food stand will not solve all of our health concerns so we are also teaming up with various groups including Just Harvest, Bridgeway Capital, Penn State University Extension, and other regional leaders and innovators, in the field of food education. This is just a sampling of the groups that the MRCDC is working with to address the issue of food and nutrition in our community. We are trying to address the lack of access to healthy foods holistically to build a better food environment; and therefore access to a healthier life.
To help with these efforts, we are conducting a survey in conjunction with Focus On Renewal (FOR) to gather community data, informing better food-related implementations for the community. We are looking for the input of community members because you are going to be affected most by this work. It takes under 10 minutes to complete and will provide valuable information. If you are willing to participate, please follow this link and answer our questions. Also, if you know others in McKees Rocks who may not receive this Newsletter please pass this information to them and send the link along. Thank you for your time and valuable insights into the fresh food needs of our community!!
The MRCDC believes that a healthy community is a more livable community and will only help Sto-Rox grow.
