The Good Food Blog

Passionate about Child Health and Wellness

by Noah Drew, JD and Vahista Ussery, MS, MBA, RDN, Co-leaders of the TCFPC Children's Health Working Group
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2018

In the United States, the percentage of children and adolescents affected by obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s. Data from 2015-2016 shows that nearly 1 in 5 school-age children and young people (6 to 19 years) in the United States has obesity. As of 2018, more than 44 percent of children in the Fort Worth Independent School District were overweight or obese.
While genetics and physical activity play a part, a healthy diet is the keystone for maintaining a healthy weight. More than 90 percent of American children have poor diets. Some children have it harder than others, living in food desserts...Read more

S trengthening Local Food Systems

by Harrison Gibson, TCFPC Board Member

TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2020

"These are strange times” is an often heard refrain these days, and it certainly applies to our food system right now. Crops are being turned under or rotting in the fields, milk is being poured down dairy drains, and feedlot animals are being euthanized for lack of a processor. Meanwhile, hungry people are encountering bare grocery shelves and longer than ever lines at food pantries. How can we be destroying food while we’re seeing record numbers of unemployment and hunger?...Read more

Sowing Food Justice with the Community Gardens & Urban Agriculture

by Dave Aftandilian, Leader of the TCFPC Community Gardens & Urban Agriculture Working Group and Board Member

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2018

If people in a community lack affordable access to healthy, nutritious produce, they can pursue a range of remedies: They might try to convince a full-service grocery store to locate in their community. They could work with the city to help local convenience stores stock more healthy produce, or to locate a farmers market in their community. Or they might decide to grow their own. That’s where Community Gardens & Urban Agriculture (CGUA), the Tarrant County Food Policy Council’s CGUA Working Group...Read more

T he State of Our Local Food System: What Every Citizen Should Know About Food From North Texas

by Micheline Hynes, Chair, Tarrant County Food Policy Council

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

To improve access to healthy foods, you have to have a community that produces it. The North Texas region needs more farmers and gardeners to meet the needs of our community. Most local growers are family run small businesses. When you buy local, it can often mean fresher, more variety, and foods that are more nutritious than those that have been transported hundreds of miles, and your dollars stay in the community where you live...Read more

WASTE Not...

by Dorothy Cadet, TCFPC Intern

WEDNESDAY, DEC 19, 2018

Up to 40% of food produced in the United States goes uneaten, is thrown away, spoils or is dumped into landfills across the country. This amount of food waste that sits and rots in landfills could have been used to feed families, animals or turned into nourishing compost to enrich the soil for more produce to grow. With nationwide focus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge to challenge retailers to reduce their waste and loss by 50% by the year 2030...Read more