San Jose’s Corner Stores are Good. To Go.

Corner stores are now the place to go for fresh, high-quality food, thanks to The Health Trust’s new Good. To Go. campaign.  Dozens of San Jose corner stores have begun undergoing renovations to bring produce and other fun, fast, fresh snacks to neighborhoods currently overrun with junk food.  The initiative is demonstrating that quality foods, such as eggs, nuts, and juices, can also be fast foods, prepared in the form of quick grab-and-go meals to fit the busy lifestyles of San Jose residents.

Today The Health Trust, its partners, and elected officials celebrated the launch of Good. To Go. and showcased the first conversion of a San Jose corner store.  Damian Trujillo, host of NBC’s Comunidad Del Valle, emceed the event where San Jose City Councilmember Sam Liccardo, Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, and others toured Emit Mini Mart to see how aisles of candy were transformed into aisles of fresh produce and fun, fast, fresh snacks.

“Promoting healthier choices is something that is important to me,” said Emit Mini Mart owner, Carmina Rivera. “This program helps me build a relationship with my customers and community.  It also helps me attract new ones through offering a wider variety of products.”  Emit Mini Mart is one of dozens of stores participating in the initiative.  Store owners receive equipment, upgrades, training, marketing materials, monetary incentives, and business development assistance in exchange for offering and highlighting produce and healthier snack options.

Many San Jose neighborhoods rely on local corner stores and mini marts for their food purchases – businesses where snack foods and sugary beverages are plentiful while fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce.  The Health Trust Good. To Go. initiative is changing this by increasing the number of food outlets where high quality foods can be conveniently purchased at affordable prices.

With funding from USDA, Google, Packard Foundation, and the City of San Jose, the initiative makes the healthy choice the easy choice by offering attractive, affordable fresh produce and other healthy foods that appeal to consumer needs for convenience and quality. Rather than asking residents to sacrifice for the sake of health, Good. To Go. encourages purchases of healthy foods by marketing them as “Fun. Fast. Fresh” – fun-to-eat and easy-to-find alternatives that taste good and make you feel good. The initiative’s goal is to change eating habits by making healthy foods more widely available right in San Jose’s neighborhoods and more desirable to consumers.

About Healthy Corner Store Program
The Healthy Corner Store program is being launched this year by Hispanic Chamber of Commerce- Silicon Valley (HCCSV) to provide equipment, upgrades, training, marketing materials, and business development assistance to store owners who agree to carry healthy foods and other “grab-and-go” items. The stores serve as one stop shops for community resident’s weekly grocery needs and are where local children visit for their mid-day snack of nuts or fresh grapes. Forty stores will be converted over two years with help from HCCSV’s bilingual business advisors and managers, The Food Trust, Salter Mitchell, and The Health Trust.   For more information and to find Good. To Go. corner stores on our locator map , visit https://healthtrust.org/our-work/eat-well.

About Good. To Go.
Good. To Go. is a community-based campaign aimed at increasing San Jose residents’ purchase of produce and quality foods.  The campaign is organized through a network of on-the-ground, trusted community vendors, including corner store retailers, Fresh Cart mobile produce vendors, and urban farmers. Participating vendors receive branded materials, marketing assistance, and media coverage to drive consumer demand for the new “fun, fast, fresh” items at Good. To Go. outlets. Community residents receive high quality produce at competitive prices with incentives like coupons to encourage healthy choices.  The campaign is sponsored by Google, USDA Community Food Project Grant, Packard Foundation, and the City of San Jose. For more information, visit the Good. To Go. webpage: https://healthtrust.org/our-work/eat-well/good-to-go.

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. The Health Trust won Google’s Bay Area Impact Challenge in June for its proposal to create new distribution channels for affordable produce in Santa Clara County, receiving $500,000 to distribute 50,000 pounds of produce to 10,000 low-income residents in Santa Clara Valley.  For more information, visit www.healthtrust.org.

For information contact:
Robert Johnson
408.513.8705
rjohnson@healthtrust.org