English students campaign for healthy foods

LYNN – Snacks from a corner convenience store might not be your idea of healthy eating but a group of teens and the Lynn Food and Fitness Alliance are setting out to change that with a healthy market campaign.”We wanted to target the youth and the corner market, and we thought the way to do it was to engage the youth in the corner store project,” said Amanda Rzepkowski, an AmeriCorps volunteer who is coordinating the program.Rzepkowski recruited teens from Lynn English High School for the Lynn Youth Health Alliance and asked them what places they frequent after school.Jayden Pena, 18, admitted he was skeptical at first.”You don’t go to a convenience store for healthy food,” he said. “You’re in and out and just grab what’s handy.”The goal is to get a store owner to agree to not only offer healthy items but also display them in a prime location. The payback for their efforts is a poster telling the world they are a healthy options market and free marketing from the kids.Pena said they targeted the Richdales Store at 458 Chatham St. because it’s where kids from the high school go.Princess Guwor, 18, said they approached the owner, explained the project and he went for it.To become a healthy market takes more than a pledge to a bunch of teens, however. Rzepkowski said there are guidelines that go along with the Mass in Motion Healthy Market Program, which is an initiative of the state’s Department of Public Health.For the purposes of the project a healthy market is defined as convenience stores that are actively working to meet the guidelines by providing not only healthy but affordable choices for customers. The guidelines include stocking at least two kinds each of fresh fruits and vegetables or at the very least stocking canned or frozen versions with no sugar added.Stores must also stock healthy cereals and grains such as oatmeal, brown rice or whole wheat pasta, healthy beverages like skim milk and 100 percent fruit juices, snacks such as yogurt, baked chips, low or unsalted nuts, whole fresh fruit and/or containers of cut vegetables. Other requirements include making the healthy choices more visible and putting healthy “grab and go” items on the counter near the cash register.The first step for the students, after speaking with the owner was to do a survey of the store to see what changes needed to be made, Guwor said. Rzepkowski admitted that this particular Richdales already sold a variety of healthy items so it was more about getting him to adjust the location of such items.Inside the Chatham Street market a bunch of bananas that had been on the counter disappeared rapidly but most of the healthy choices remained in the rear of the store.Jeisson Acosta, 18, told Ivy Khon, whose brother owns the store, that he needed to move things closer to the front of the store. Acosta said he likes the idea of having healthy snacks to grab.”Personally, if I go to the gym, work out, then wake up and go to school and stop for something to eat, I don’t want to eat chips,” he said. “I think if they put (healthy) stuff up front, people will grab that.”Chris Lessard, an LEHS senior, agreed.”Lots of teens might be more apt to grab healthy food if it’s right there,” he said.Lynn Food and Fitness/Mass in Motion coordinator Kristina Pechulis said becoming a Healthy Market does not mean the everything in the store will be healthy.”It just means there will be more items in the healthy category,” she said. “They will still sell Doritos.”