- A new program called Healthy and Resilient Communities is bringing healthy, fresh, grab-and-go foods to Detroit area convenience stores and gas stations.

Authority Health developed the three-year initiative in partnership with Papa Joe's Gourmet Market as part of its efforts to educate the community about the relationship between food and health.

The affordable selections include wraps, salads, and fruits.

The program targets seven Detroit ZIP codes and will also include a food truck with healthy food samples.

I got all of the details from Authority Health President and CEO Loretta Bush, and Hannah Harris, who is the Marketing Director for Papa Joe's.

So, Loretta, I wanna start with you, this idea of Healthy and Resilient Communities.

Of course, that has to start with access to fresh food here in the city of Detroit.

That is a longstanding issue.

I can't tell you how many stories I've worked on or read that deal with the fact that if you live here, it can be very challenging to find access to fresh food.

So, tell me about this initiative to essentially put the food in the places where people are already shopping.

- That's exactly it, and what we find is that there is a strong connection between what we eat and drink and chronic disease.

And so that's the first impact that we wanted to have.

But we understand that if you have to go miles and miles to get to fresh fruit, something that's healthy, but also something that's cost effective, it can be very difficult to do what you need to do.

So, with those two things in mind, we thought, "How about we have a strong public-private partnership?"

Which we all talk about, but many times they just don't happen.

We know it's a frontier that we need to do, but many times, we don't do it.

So we were looking at: How do we bring fresh grab-and-go meals right into the community?

Because certainly, there's other grab-and-go foods that aren't quite as healthy.

So that's how we got the concept, if we really wanted to have a different kind of impact, we needed to partner with a different kind of partner.

And that led us to Papa Joe's Gourmet Market for our wholesaler, but then we also started to reach out to liquor stores, convenience stores, dollar stores, and Petro-Marts, because those things are already based in the community, right?

So we didn't have to try to recreate a venue, but just bring a different type of product to an existing venue.

- Yeah, yeah.

So Hannah, tell me about Papa Joe's kind of interest in something like this, but then also what a grab-and-go meal, I guess, looks like, and how you put that together so that it works in a venue that's not a full-service grocery store.

- Absolutely, so first of all, Papa Joe's, we strive to be healthy, fresh, the best product that we can be.

And that is really ingrained in our food and our entire process.

Being in Oakland County, we know that these food deserts do exist, and we've been trying to bridge that gap and get more involved in the community.

So, this partnership and how this developed was just truly kind of a godsend.

And when it comes to food today, there's a lot going on with what's real food and what's fake food.

We have all seen it online.

And Papa Joe's, we are the definition of real food.

We have a whole chef-led kitchen, where we have people rinsing and cleaning lettuce to put together wraps, sandwiches, salads.

There's no bio-engineered food here; it's real people making real food.

And we already have a grab-and-go system in our stores, so this was really quite easy and refreshing to implement.

Once Authority Health approached us, I'm like, "We already do this concept now..." - We're doing this, right.

- "We can just share this concept and bring healthy options to communities."

- Yeah, yeah.

Loretta, talk about some of the health challenges that you see at Authority that are related to this food desert kind of existence that we have in Detroit.

And I think that sometimes, it's maybe not a fair description.

There are a lot of people trying to provide fresh food in Detroit, we just don't have enough of it, but make that link between that and the health outcomes that we see.

- Absolutely.

So, one of the things is, as soon as you are diagnosed with a chronic disease, be it hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, your usual cast of characters, the first thing a good physician is gonna talk to you about is what you eat.

- Yeah, what do you eat?

- What you drink, and then also physical activity.

So that's gonna be the first thing.

So the link is there.

If you're hypertensive or trying not to be hypertensive, you're going to have to try to control things like your salt intake.

Obesity is a open door to many of the chronic diseases.

So trying to do weight management, keeping your weight at a healthy weight, all of these things are impacted by food.

Now, I always like to mention that sometimes, people are just dealt a bad hand.

You have a genetic predisposition.

But even if that's the case, what you eat and drink is gonna be still so important.

Maybe even more important.

If you know that something runs in your family, which we all should know, our family history, and hopefully now it's been out, that Thanksgiving dinner talk, Christmas dinner talk, just Sunday get together.

You need to try to find out, "Hey, what did grandma have?

What did dad have?"

So the things that we used to not talk about, we need to talk about them so that we'll know what we're predisposed to.

So, even in that situation, food and drink is gonna be a critical part of living healthy and your longevity.

So, it's just a major connection there.

And you're right, there are providers who are trying to make sure that there's healthy foods out there, but we need more outlets for that.

And especially for that grab-and-go.

So, what does that look like?

It looks like sandwiches, wraps, but not a sandwich that's in white bread.

It's a sandwich that's a nice healthy wrap.

And inside, you have fresh products, fresh chicken, fresh Turkey, salads that are made available, so that someone who has a 30-minute lunch hour can run in there, grab it, and consume it as quickly and as easily as if they went through a drive through and got one of the other things that people are very familiar with.

So, I'm not gonna name them, right- - Right, right.

- We all know what I'm talking about.

- Right.

- So now, you can just drive to the store that's in the neighborhood either where you work or live.

And during COVID is when we really became even more aware of how many people depend on their local liquor store or convenience store for many of their meals and everything.

So we tell people, though, "If you have to open a can or a box before you can see your food, that's processed."

- Right, right, that's not fresh.

- That's not fresh, that's not what you wanna do.

If you have to open a box or a can, 'cause we wanna make it easy for people, then that's not fresh, that's processed.

Now, if you have to get to that sometimes with some green beans or whatever, okay.

But for the most part, you wanna be getting things that are fresh, but it also has to be affordable.

And that's why this relationship with Papa Joe's has been so rewarding 'cause the wholesale price point has to be right and then the retail price point has to be right.

- Sure.

- So that even people who are financially fragile are able to access the food.

- Yeah, yeah.

Hannah, I wanna ask you about maybe the next step here, which would be businesses like Papa Joe's having their own presence in cities like Detroit, in these neighborhoods that are often distanced from fresh food options.

Is this maybe a foot in the door, I guess, for looking at that, yeah?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

This opportunity has really shown us a new connection to food and community on a whole other level.

And watching Authority Health, when we first discussed this and launched this program together, Loretta, we had maybe what, five locations, that has now quickly turned into 15 locations?

- Oh, more than that.

We'll be up to 23 by the end of next week.

(Loretta laughing) - So, it's something that is quickly growing.

And I went out, I was actually in the city yesterday visiting some of these locations.

And the community, you can tell they're buying this, they're using this, they're eating it, they're appreciating it.

And that's so humbling and incredible to see.

And when you're eating good food, that's gonna have an impact on your body, that's gonna have an impact on your mind all around.

Food's at the heart of it.

And this is definitely a great connection and a new light.

- Okay, Loretta and Hannah, congratulations on the work here, and thanks for being with us here on "American Black Journal."

- All right.

Thanks for having us.

- Thank you.

- Mm-hmm.

Finally today, we wanna send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Stephen Singleton, a pastoral minister with the Archdiocese of Detroit.

He died last month after being struck by a car while on his daily run in Rochester Hills.

Singleton was a guest here on "American Black Journal" several times over the years.

He shared his story of traveling to New York to volunteer on the search and rescue team after the 9/11 tragedy.

On another occasion, he talked about the 5K run he organized to raise money for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

He also joined us to reflect on his participation in the 2014 Justice for All March in Washington D.C. Stephen Singleton was 72 years old.

We thank him for his contributions and his compassion.