Date

5-2023

Document Type

Capstone Project (Open Access)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Health, Human Services and Public Policy

Major

Collaborative Health and Human Services

First Advisor

Barbera Silverthrone

Abstract

The Blue Zones project was brought to Monterey County due to the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Nearly fifty percent of Monterey county are pre-diabetic or diabetic. The Blue Zones Project of Monterey County is a well being improvement initiative that works with local schools, worksites, restaurants and organizations to educate and promote healthier habits. The food sector of the project consists of individuals who work with restaurants and grocery stores here in Monterey County. The project serves Marina, Seaside, Monterey, Salinas, Pacific Grove, Gonzalez, King City, Soledad, Castroville, and Chular. A major issue the project wants to address is enhancing the healthy food accessibility for the community members. Blue Zones works with local restaurants to develop healthy food menus that consist of plant based meals. In order to combat this, they help restaurants create healthier environments for their customers. The implementation process begins with walking into a local restaurant and explaining what the project is and trying to convince the owners to take the initiative of becoming Blue Zones approved. By approving multiple restaurants in the area people will have more healthy options when eating out. Each year the project aims at approving a certain number of restaurants in each city of the project to help with healthy food accessibility across the county. Getting a new restaurant approved by Apr 22, 2023 was not possible. Work with Googies Grill will continue and the goal is to get them approved by May 31, 2023. The next few steps the Blue Zones project can take to address the lack of healthy food in Seaside is to prioritize working with restaurants that have multiple locations, identify restaurant owners who believe in the project, hold surveys at outreach events so the community can voice their opinions on which restaurants they want BZP to work with and finally to collaborate with Gusto's Handcrafted Pizza and Pasta, Chopstix Vietnamese restaurant and The Breakfast club.

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