San Bernardino Health Coalition

Go Fresh
March 25, 2015

Created By:
Heidi Alvarez
Antonia Gonzalez
Emily Mardon
Sally Lai
Jonathan Perez
Jillian Seminara
Nayeli Torres

San Bernardino Health Coalition: Go Fresh

About Our Organization
In 2010, Robert Turner founded the San Bernardino Health Coalition (SBHC).
This organization focuses on improving the health quality and life of the community in
the City of San Bernardino. As an organization, our goal is to promote the health and
safety of the City of San Bernardino with the assistance of our partners throughout the
Inland Empire. In order to maintain the Go Fresh program, our current partnerships with
Albertsons and the Riverside Health Alliance will be beneficial to our program, as they
will donate the fresh produce and vegetables. In 1939, Joe Albertson founded a grocery
store called Albertsons. As his company grew, he focused on having the best customer
service rather than the most stores and Joe follows the phrase in bad, people had to
eat. Throughout the years Albertsons has made generous donations of its products to
organizations all over the nation. Since 2012, Albertsons has been a vital partnership to
our organization; they donated various amounts of food to help our previous programs
in the past and have continued to work with our organization to help low-income families
in our communities. Albertson stores have demonstrated acts of care, kindness and
willingness in order to help those in need, which is why our organization has continued
to partner with them over the years.
In the summer of 2014, a new partnership began with the Riverside Health
Alliance. This organization is a community garden located in the heart of Riverside and
is funded through the Folger Produce Company. This organization is focuses on helping
the communities improve their health and daily lifestyle choices. Another partnership our
organization looks forward to working with is called Chefs Kitchen. This organization is
run and operated by Bob Matthews, he opened his own restaurant in 2000 and then

San Bernardino Health Coalition: Go Fresh

created a food truck service in 2002 that caters many events. From his successes in
managing restaurants and food truck businesses, he offers his knowledge and
experience about becoming a successful business by donating up to $10,000 to new
upcoming businesses. By partnering with this organization we hope to finance our food
truck, which is main objective of our program. With the support provided by these
organizations and their respective advisors we will ensure the Go Fresh program
longevity and sustainability for years to come.
Project Description
Our new innovative program, Go Fresh, will cater to the seven wards throughout
the City of San Bernardino using a food truck. This program will provide fresh produce
and vegetables to low-income families who have a lack of access to transportation. Our
focus in creating this program is determined towards decreasing obesity in children
within our community by promoting a healthier choice of eating and lifestyle throughout
the community. This project aims to change behavior styles of the community, for
example, families dining out to fast food restaurants because it is faster than cooking a
homemade meal.
In order to determine what kind of lifestyles the public lead in the City of San
Bernardino, SBHC began collecting data by distributing surveys to parents of children
who were in elementary school and setting up questionnaires outside of the Albertsons.
In spring of 2014, the surveys and questionnaires distributed asked parents and the
public various questions. These questions provided an insight to the population we
would cater to, such as how many times do they visit a grocery store a week, do they

San Bernardino Health Coalition: Go Fresh

have access to transportation to get to the grocery store, the how many times do they
cook at home versus dine out, and if they buy fresh produce and vegetables.
With the data collected by the surveys and questionnaires in spring of 2014, the
SBHC was able to determine that obesity in children from ages 6 to 12 increased by 2%
over the last year. Which lead to the SBHC to question whether it was due to a lack of
nutrition and portion control or whether families did not have access to cook healthy
meals. Though 7% of the population had assistance from food stamps, the data
estimated that 12% of the population had a lack of access to transportation. The
findings also showed that 1.3% of the population lacked access to a complete kitchen,
which would limit them to dining out. The data also showed that most families and
residents of the community visit the grocery store twice a week, however about twothirds of data we collected determined that they do not buy fresh produce or vegetables.
Our organization aims to improve the community, in which the Go Fresh program
will increase the health awareness of the community of San Bernardino City. However,
as a new program we cannot foresee challenges that may come, however the
organization is well prepared and equipped to overcome any challenges that can arise.
As our goal is to provide fresh produce to the community, we do not foresee any
complications with our partnerships as we have established a contract of monthly
meetings with our partners to discuss and assess the needs of the community monthly.
We have also prepared for any outstanding expense funds if such reasons should arise
each year, such as maintenance for the truck or travel expenses.
Project Implementation

San Bernardino Health Coalition: Go Fresh

The San Bernardino Health Coalitions Go Fresh program will be monitored by a
group of well-qualified members. In order for Go Fresh to succeed, a project coordinator
will be of necessity. The project coordinator will ensure that the projects objectives and
goals are being clearly understood and will eventually be finalized by the staff. We
require that this staff member obtain a Masters in Public Health, with a minimum of 2
years of experience within a community-based organization. Another member of the
staff will be a project facilitator, who will be needed to consult and provide guidance to
the entire programs staff. Our project facilitator must acquire a Bachelors of Science in
Public Health, with a year of experience in a non-profit organization. In order to achieve
our goals for the Go Fresh program, we will need a nutritionist. The nutritionist will
provide health and wellness material to the public through nutrition classes, information
based pamphlets, and verbal tips and advice. We expect our nutritionist to obtain a
Bachelors of Science in nutrition, along with a one-year experience. To conclude the
staff needed, a truck driver will also be employed to transport fresh produce to the
assessed in need communities. We will also have volunteers within our organization to
help our staff with activities and providing necessary information to the public about
health and wellness.
In addition to our staff members who are needed to implement this program, a
number of organizations will partner with the San Bernardino Health Coalition (SBHC) to
provide its services. In order to comply with the needs of the community, Go Fresh will
have two distributers who will donate fresh produce and vegetable. One of which is
Albertsons grocery in the City of San Bernardino, the grocery store will donate twice a
month to the Go Fresh program. The other distributer that will donate fresh produce and

San Bernardino Health Coalition: Go Fresh

vegetables is the Riverside Health Alliance. This organization provides community
gardens throughout Riverside and passes on information on the benefits of having
organic fruits and vegetables. Not only will the RHA help to provide fresh produce and
vegetables for our program, but will also offer their knowledge and assistance to our
staff of nutritionists. Their staff will assist our nutritionist in creating healthy recipes as
well as many other ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
As we collaborate with Albertsons and the RHA, Go Fresh will also benefit from
Chiefs Kitchen. Chiefs Kitchen is an organization, which supports the commencement of
upcoming businesses, will be responsible for the truck that will be utilized to hand out
produce to SBCHs targeted population. To further aid the communities in need, one of
Go Freshs objectives will be to offer in depth nutrition classes. YMCA in San Bernardino
will allow the proposition for nutrition-based classes to occur by leasing the San
Bernardino Health Coalition a space where classes will be held in. Through the alliance
of all these organizations and partnerships, Go Fresh will be sure to succeed and
contribute to a change within the community.
For a measurable change to arise, San Bernardino Health Coalition has created
goals and objectives to accomplish throughout the Go Fresh program in response to the
needs of the targeted community. One goal being, to decrease the level of obesity
within the low income communities of San Bernardino. The second is to increase the
consumption of fresh produce within these low-income neighborhoods.
By spring 2015, a majority of San Bernardinos low-income families will be
offered the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables. This objective will be accomplished
by having an employed truck driver drive to locations assessed by the program

San Bernardino Health Coalition: Go Fresh

coordinator as food desserts. The Go Fresh truck will be stocked with fresh fruits and
vegetables obtained by Riverside Health Alliance and Albertsons. This will be expected
to occur twice a week for the time of three years. During the time that consumers
approach the Go Fresh truck and given their packaged fresh produce health and
wellness tips will be demonstrated to them. The second objective will be made possible
by the San Bernardino Health Coalitions nutritionist. Our nutritionist will set an on-site
stand to analyze the consumers produce items and provide quick tips and advice as to
how to cook the produce of which they are taking home.
To further improve the health of the targeted population, the nutritionist will allow
consumers to choose a date and time to attend a nutrition class. Once a month, those
who purchase produce from the Go Fresh program will attend an in depth nutrition class
instructed by the nutritionist and SBHC volunteers in order to provide knowledge on
portion control and demonstrate how Go Fresh has made an impact within their
household. A pretest will be given before the two-hour class is held. This will examine
how much consumers know about basic nutrition facts. A survey will also be handed out
during the course of instruction in order to identify what fresh produce was already in
the residence before the Go Fresh program was made available to them. After the class
instruction, a post-test will be held to tell how much knowledge was actually obtained.
Altogether these objectives will help San Bernardino Health Coalitions Go Fresh
program to strive and succeed in the reduction of obesity and increase the amount of
fresh fruits and vegetables within the residence of San Bernardinos low-income
neighbors.