City News

The West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition was recently awarded $300,000 by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation to strengthen their capacity to advocate for healthy foods. The funding is spread over three years and will enable the Coalition to enhance their advocacy efforts to change the policy and systemic factors that limit access to healthy food. This work ultimately seeks to increase access to healthy foods for community members of the West Boulevard Corridor and surrounding neighborhoods.

“The West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition is thrilled to receive this award from the Blue Cross NC Foundation. This grant gets us one step closer to our vision for health equity and community wealth building in the West Boulevard Corridor,” said Rickey Hall, Board Chair, West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition.

The West Boulevard Corridor lacks healthy food in retail stores and there is no full-service grocery store. Plans are currently underway to build a community-owned cooperative market on West Boulevard, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. This grant funding will enable the Coalition to build relationships with local, state, and federal policymakers and elevate the voices of community members experiencing barriers to food security.

The Coalition sees firsthand the urgent need to remove these barriers at the systemic level, and we look forward to working with Blue Cross NC Foundation to move the needle, not just in the Corridor, but for citizens across the state.