How can community members and youth support stores to make positive changes?
Residents are directly impacted by a lack of access to healthy foods in their communities, and have a vested interest in improving nearby corner stores. They can provide valuable input and assistance to corner store initiatives; indeed these efforts are much more likely to succeed if they have strong community support from the beginning. Residents have a key role to play in demonstrating interest in healthy options. They can ask store owners to add healthy items or find out what products their neighbors would like to buy through community meetings or surveys. Community members also can help promote healthy items in stores by getting the word out to their neighbors, conducting taste tests or cooking demos, organizing health fairs or block parties, or playing a role in other support activities described under #9. Youth can be great allies in changing the corner store environment. Many are regular customers, stopping by stores on their way to and from school. Youth may be interested in ge
