Moving from policy to implementation: a methodology and lessons learned to determine eligibility for healthy food financing projects.

Public health obesity prevention experts have recently emphasized a policy systems and environmental change approach. Absent, however, are studies describing how practitioners transition from policy adoption to implementation. In the realm of food policy, financing programs to incentivize healthy food retail development in communities classified as "underserved" are underway at the local, state, and national levels. Implementing these policies requires a clear definition of eligibility for program applicants and policy administrators. This article outlines a methodology to establish eligibility for healthy food financing programs by describing the work of The Food Trust to coadminister programs in 3 distinct regions. To determine program eligibility, qualitative assessments of community fit are needed and national data sources must be locally verified. Our findings have broad implications for programs that assess need to allocate limited public/private financing resources.

Policy solutions to the 'grocery gap'.

In 2001 the Food Trust, a nonprofit organization committed to ensuring access to affordable, nutritious food, focused attention on the lack of access to healthy foods in Philadelphia by creating food access maps and convening a task force. The campaign led to the creation of a statewide initiative that to date has funded seventy-eight fresh food outlets in Pennsylvania, increasing food access for 500,000 children and adults. This success has led to interest from other states and the federal government in expanding the initiative. Here we present the Food Trust's five-step framework for increasing access to fresh, healthy food in other locales.