Plan to increase access to healthy food for Martinsville residents moving forward

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -

A meeting will take place at the New College Institute in Martinsville from 6-8 p.m. Monday to discuss how to implement a plan to improve access to healthy food.

The city's community planner, Susan McCulloch, said the hope is to use numerous committees of Martinsville residents.

Each committee would tackle a different part of the plan.

The plan is to turn the old Paradise Inn into a "Healthy Hub" where residents can come and buy fresh, local food.

There has also been talk about adding restaurants to the building that will serve some of that food.

The city is participating in a federal program called Local Foods, Local Places.

Program representatives work with the city to develop and implement a plan to increase residents' access to healthy food.

In May, a brainstorming session was held.

From that, a plan was developed and released in July.

According to McCulloch, not many people responded to a request for committees to implement the plan, so Monday night's meeting was scheduled to hopefully begin forming committees.

After the plan is presented, there will be breakout groups for people to participate in.

"One's about canvassing, one's about the management of the Healthy Hub, one is about quick hits for hydroponics ideas, and another table is about quick hits for beautification ideas," McCulloch said.

For more information about the plan, or if you are interested in participating on a committee, contact McCulloch at 276-403-5156 or smcculloch@ci.martinsville.va.us.

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