Dixon panel to study access to healthy food

November 8, 2008

Mayor Sheila Dixon announced yesterday that she is creating a food policy task force to examine ways of making healthy food more available to city residents. In other cities, food task forces have looked at improving public transportation routes to grocery stores and opening farmers' markets and community gardens, according Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the city's health commissioner. Sharfstein will co-chair the task force, and other members include officials from the planning department, staff from the Baltimore Development Corp., researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, representatives from grocery stores and elected leaders. It will meet three times, starting in December, and release a report with recommendations in the spring.

Annie Linskey