California Endowment

The debate over taxing sugar-added beverages is even more divisive than the age-old Coke-versus-Pepsi question. Some studies demonize soda for the rise in obesity; others defend it, blaming snack food and other treats. 
 State Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, thinks there’s enough evidence to single out sweetened drinks as a cause of obesity. And he’s looking to treat them more like cigarettes with a proposed penny-per-ounce excise tax. 


Yale professor Andrew Papachristos has proposed using a social graph that shows the connection between gang violence and friends and family of those gang members as a way of preventing future gang violence.

Coca-Cola Co. (KO) will expand calorie labeling to the front of all packages and reiterated its pledge not to advertise to children under 12 anywhere as the world’s largest soft-drink maker fights criticism that it is contributing to obesity.

A simple visit to the doctor has been an expensive hardship. Either my husband would have to miss work, giving up a day of wages or I would have to find a ride oftentimes paying up to $30.00 to drive me 40 miles to the doctor’s office in Indio. I live ...

Supported by the California Endowment’s Community Transformation Grant program, over the next few months Be Smarter, Drink Water participants will install a minimum of five drinking water stations at schools and in public spaces, hold community events and activities, and conduct tap water quality and taste tests with a community engagement team of about 20 local parents.

This week, an Assembly committee will take up a plan to change the foods offered in vending machines in state buildings. No more empty calories for state workers, according to the proposed law.

Two Senate committees approved a bill by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) that would add a penny to every ounce of sugar-sweetened beverage sold in California. SB 622 has two goals: discourage consumption of sugary drinks and generate income to fund programs aimed at reducing childhood obesity.

Last week, hosted in a small campus in Boyle Heights, the Healthy Neighborhood Market Network (HNMN) held a Neighborhood Market Training, an informative workshop program that helps our little corner markets put a focus on healthy foods from local farms for their customers.

California has much to be proud of in preventing firearm violence. Innovative policies enacted by the Legislature, and public and private violence prevention programs, have made our state a model for the nation. Our firearm-related death rate ranks 34th among the 50 states, in a listing from highest to lowest. There is still much work to do. About 3,000 people die from gunshot wounds in our state every year; this is 3,000 too many.

The presence of firearms does not guarantee safety. A gun is not a magic wand that you simply wave in the air to ward off the presence of evil. Let me tell you about the most important things we can do to keep our schools safe and the most effective role for school police.

As city planners consider lifting a five-year-old ban on new fast-food vendors in South Los Angeles, urban gardening activists say it’s especially important to promote healthy eating habits by planting publicly available produce gardens on front lawns and city parkways.

When Wahid Rashad, 65, sees young people in Chicago chugging bottles of sugary drinks and chomping on fluorescent-orange snacks, he thinks: “That’s garbage. It doesn’t enhance the brain and energy level.” Rashad sells apples, mangoes, papayas and peppers from a produce cart in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. Among the comments he hears from customers since he started selling in the neighborhood, especially from the younger ones: “Hey, Juicy Fruit, where were you? I was looking for you.”

Nutritious food, access to health care, and being able to safely get an education are some of the foundations of a healthier community. On March 22, about 75 grantees of The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities Initiative came together at the City Heights Family Health Center to network and get updates about the $1 billion state-wide effort.

It's incomprehensible and inexcusable. More than 2 million California residents do not have access to clean drinking water.

Lawmakers in Sacramento are pushing forward on a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks, with revenues going to help fund programs that fight and prevent childhood obesity. Statistics show that 38 percent of California's children are either overweight or obese, and sugary drinks are the leading contributor of increased caloric intake leading to obesity and preventable chronic diseases among children.

On April 23,2013 four individuals and six organizations were honored by the Merced County Board of Supervisors for their outstanding volunteerism in the community.

A recent study out of Salt Lake City, Utah has results that shows people who participated in a community garden seem to weigh less than those who did not participate in the community garden.

“Books” and “fitness” were the words of the day for many Richmond families Saturday afternoon as they strolled a sunny Civic Center plaza learning about both. While children combed vendor tents for new and exciting books to take home, and exercised in a play station provided by Kaiser Permanente, parents had the opportunity to measure their blood pressure and gain new information about diabetes. The outdoor activities and information sharing was part of the fifth annual Richmond Tales Fest: An Afternoon of Family Literacy and Healthy Living.

Luther Burbank High School students on Thursday launched a second year of selling fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, part of a nonprofit campaign to promote healthy eating.

In a talk yesterday at The California Endowment’s Los Angeles office,  Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, lifted the curtain on the insidious marketing practices of the junk food and junk drinks industry. From ...