Health Trust Selected as Finalist in Google’s Bay Area Impact Challenge

Voting begins today for the Google Bay Area Impact Challenge and The Health Trust has been selected among ten non-profit finalists to compete for online votes.  The aim of the challenge is to search for the most innovative ideas for making Bay Area communities an even better place to live. The Health Trust has been chosen as one of the ten finalists for our inventive approaches to make affordable, quality, nutritious food accessible in low-income neighborhoods.

Our proposal creates new distribution channels for affordable produce in Santa Clara County, expanding street vendors, corner stores, and farmers’ markets for underserved areas.

  • Bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to public areas in residential neighborhoods of San Jose through a mobile produce vendor program. The program provides entrepreneurial opportunities to neighborhood residents, who will operate their own carts, while increasing access to healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods
  • Promoting fresh produce and other healthy items within small markets and convenience stores by providing equipment and technical assistance to their owners.
  • Increasing the availability of farmers’ markets by establishing small, certified markets on private property through training and technical assistance to community organizations.

A panel of advisors — Honorable Aida Alvarez, Secretary Norman Mineta, Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed, Reverend Cecil Williams and Major League Baseball player Barry Zito — helped review the submissions to identify 10 fantastic finalists we are honored to be among.  As a finalist, we will receive $250,000 from Google to make our fresh food access project a reality and a chance to increase our funding to $500,000 through online voting. The public voting window is open from May 22 to June 2 and on June 3 the top four winning projects will be revealed.

For information contact:
Robert Johnson, The Health Trust
408.513.8705
rjohnson@healthtrust.org

About The Health Trust
The Health Trust is a nonprofit foundation that provides grants, services and advocacy to support its vision of Silicon Valley as the healthiest region in America through its three initiatives – Healthy Living, Healthy Eating, and Healthy Aging. The Health Trust Healthy Eating Initiative works to increase access to healthy foods through policy and system change. For more information, visit www.healthtrust.org.