Second Street in El Cajon is lined with fast food restaurants, calling out to children who easily recognize them and parents with not enough time to prepare a meal at home.
From East Madison Avenue to East Main Street, the street is a non-stop buffet of McDonald’s, Arby’s, Jack in the Box, Subway, Taco Bell and Baskin-Robbins. A Fred’s Burgers is around the corner and a Little Caesar’s sits across East Main.
As part of the Communities of Excellence (CX3) project, the County’s Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) and community partners evaluated a swath of central El Cajon, including 2nd Street, noting fast food advertising, nutritional information, access to fresh produce and walkability.
The group looked an area that roughly covered from 2nd street to East Magnolia Ave. and East Madison Avenue to East Main Street. The area is home to six grocery/convenience stores, 11 fast food restaurants and three food banks/emergency food outlets.
“HHSA works in partnership with community groups in grass roots efforts to improve our communities,” said Pam Smith, HHSA east region director. “These types of projects go hand in hand with our Live Well, San Diego initiative and educating the community on healthy choices they can make.”
The goal of the group participating in this project was to increase El Cajon residents’ access to healthy foods.
“This was a group of intergenerational residents in El Cajon that want to make a difference,” said Susie Lowe from the El Cajon Collaborative’s Healthy Food Initiative.
At the fast food restaurants, the group examined the advertising displays and marketing practices, healthy options available and whether nutrition information was readily available.
“There were very limited healthy options and a lot of unhealthy options on the value or $1 menus,” said Tisha Tyler, executive director, Meals4 Hunger, and a Collaborative member. “It was very difficult to identify healthy options.”
The group found similar issues in the grocery and convenience stores.
“Some of our recommendations to the grocery outlets were to do food demonstrations and provide healthy recipe cards and to create healthy snack zones next to check out areas,” said Tyler.
One area often overlooked when it comes to nutrition is food banks. People donate what they can, and don’t usually take nutrition into account.
“We would like to educate the community on healthy foods to donate and hope to hold a healthy food donation drive,” said Lowe.
The group’s work isn’t finished now that their community survey is done. They intend to keep reaching out to the community and form more partnerships with community groups to continue their education efforts.
They are also helping to host a regional obesity awareness forum as part of National Food Day on Friday, Oct. 26. The event will take place at the Palms, 143 East Main Street, El Cajon, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can register for the event by emailing obesity@meals4hunger.org. You can contact Dale Tooze at 800-916-0954, ext. 3 for additional information.
