WIC gets fresh

(Albany) Governor David Paterson announced this week that participants in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program can now use their monthly checks at New York farmers' markets to purchase eligible fresh produce. New York is the first state in the nation to allow the use of WIC checks for fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets.

"There are not enough healthy food options in many urban and rural communities throughout the State and that lack of affordable, nutritious food is hurting the health of New Yorkers," said Paterson.

A pilot program conducted in 2006 by the Department of Health showed that WIC participants prefer fresh produce over canned or frozen products when fresh is available. In New York, approximately 520,000 women, infants and children participate in the WIC program every month.

This effort complements the Healthy Food/Healthy Communities Initiative, which uses comprehensive strategies to expand access to fresh, nutritious food in underserved communities. The highlight of that initiative is the creation of a $10 million State revolving loan fund to help finance the construction of food markets in underserved communities, and was created in response to concerns that New Yorkers lack access to fresh, affordable foods.

Playgrounds to parks

(New York City) Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe cut the ribbon on the new playground at P.S. 205 in Brooklyn last week as part of the Mayor's PlaNYC initiative to ensure that all New Yorkers live within a ten-minute walk of a park or playground. Playgrounds at I.S. 227 in Brooklyn and P.S. 226 in Brooklyn also opened the same day.

They are the most recent to be renovated through the PlaNYC Schoolyards to Playgrounds program. Through Schoolyards to Playgrounds, the city is investing $95 million in funding for playground improvements to open 266 schoolyards as playgrounds in underserved neighborhoods. Sixty-nine playgrounds, which did not require improvements, were opened in the summer of 2007. Twelve playgrounds, which have been fully renovated, have opened in the last year.

"Making sure that all city residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park or playground is an important goal of PlaNYC," said Mayor Bloomberg.

The playgrounds convert schoolyards into playgrounds and community parks complete with fields, basketball courts, play equipment, gardens, and trees. To date, the Schoolyards to Playgrounds program, working with The Trust for Public Land (TPL), have designed, developed, and opened twelve sites.

These playground sites will be open and accessible to the community after school hours, on weekends, and during school breaks when school is not in session. Additional playgrounds opening this month under the program include P.S. 41 and P.S. 21 in Staten Island, P.S. 221 in Brooklyn, P.S. 98 and P.S. 79 in Queens, and M.S. 424 in the Bronx.

The Parks Department is working with the Department of Education and The Trust for Public Land to turn schoolyards into community parks through a participatory design process-designing with ideas generated by the school community, including children and their teachers.

Since the launch of the Schoolyards to Playgrounds program, eight other schoolyard sites have also been renovated and are open to the public. They include P.S. 64 and P.S. 138 in the Bronx, P.S. 76 and P.S. 173 in Manhattan, P.S. 19 and P.S. 73 in Queens, and P.S. 4 and P.S 41 in Staten Island. In addition, Parks has 20 sites actively in construction which will be open to the community this summer.

Asthma hits low-income hardest

(New York City) Councilman Eric Gioia, chairman of the Council Committee on Oversight and Investigations, released findings Sunday that found a high correlation between a person's income and their likelihood of being hospitalized because of asthma.

"Demographics shouldn't determine a child's destiny, but in the case of asthma it often does," said Gioia. "The sight of a child with an inhaler is all too common in New York City, particularly in lower income communities, where zip code can appear to have more of an impact on children's health than genetic code."

Gioia's findings of asthma hospitalizations rates in New York City found:

• In one East Harlem zip code, where the average household income is less than $23,000, the asthma hospitalization rate was more than 77 per 10,000 people. In the Upper East Side neighborhood immediately south of East Harlem - only a few short blocks away - where the average household income exceeds $77,000, the hospitalization rate was nearly 10 times less.

• Among asthma sufferers in the Bronx, those living in zip codes with average household incomes less than $20,000 a year were nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized because of asthma than those living in zip codes with average household incomes above $50,000.

• Children are not the only one's suffering because of asthma. New Yorkers ages 65 and older are also hospitalized because of asthma at a much higher rate than the population at large. In the Bronx, residents 65 and over have a 34 percent higher hospitalization rate than the average person in the Bronx. In Brooklyn, their hospitalization rate is 50 percent greater. In Staten Island, 45 percent; Queens, 57 percent; and in Manhattan, the hospitalization rate of those ages 65 and up is 66 percent greater than the population at large.

Asthma affects New Yorkers, specifically children, much more than in the rest of the country. In New York City, 17 percent of children aged 0 to 17 have been diagnosed with asthma at least one time in their life, which is 31 percent higher than the nationwide average. According to the most current statistics, approximately 9 percent of children currently have asthma, which is nearly twice the national average of 5 percent. In New York City, asthma continues to be the leading cause of school absenteeism.

Certain neighborhoods throughout the City are especially hardest it by asthma, including the Northeast Bronx, Fordham and Bronx Park, the South Bronx, East and Central Harlem, Northwest Brooklyn, and Williamsburg and Bushwick.