News & Events

OneSTL Working Group Helping Improve Food Access

Published on Friday September 7th, 2018
Written by Melissa Vatterott

The Cherokee Street Community Market pops up once a month on the second Wednesday from May through October at Love Bank Park in Dutchtown. The market features fresh produce, hot food, art, and entertainment.

Improving access to healthy, nutritious food in the St. Louis region is gaining steam. The St. Louis Food Policy Coalition (STLFPC), which convenes the OneSTL Food Access Working Group, has joined forces with St. Louis County’s Healthy Living Coalition to support local efforts to help make healthy food an option for everyone.

This expanded team is working on three projects:

  1. Group members are working with Beyond Housing to create a “wellness hub” of health resources in North St. Louis County.
  2. Other members are determining local and state policy initiatives and advocacy efforts that would benefit those with low access to healthy food.
  3. A third group is working with researchers at Saint Louis University, Washington University, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to find financial support to help measure availability of quality, healthy food in food insecure areas. This project is similar to  Baltimore’s Food Environment Report.


Having access to affordable, healthy food has a direct effect on residents’ health and well-being. Food security is a basic need—a need that goes unmet for  one of every six residents in the St. Louis region—which is why OneSTL has made food access a priority. Our goal is to reduce by half the number of low-income areas where residents lack easy access to healthy food. For more information and to support this target, go to onestltargets.org.

If you can support or participate in any of the healthy food initiatives described above, please contact Melissa Vatterott at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..