Pueblo Food Project seeks to raise awareness, curb consumption of sugary drinks

The Pueblo Food Project has launched an initiative that aims to address health inequities and decrease the consumption of unhealthy beverages in the Steel City.

The organization has partnered with the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment to focus on those issues through education and policy. To do that, they'll seek to “engage disproportionately impacted communities and youth,” according to their contract agreement.

The entities will also target health systems, community organizations and businesses to “support the adoption of local sugary drink reduction strategies” in Pueblo and ensure the county is a “leader in health promotion and racial equity.”

“One thing we’ll be doing is educating the community more about sugary and sweet beverages and what their contents are,” said Megan Moore, program manager for Pueblo Food Project. “Particularly, we’re looking at soda. Not only does it have a lot of sugar, but it has a lot of chemicals. In general, we don’t want people, but especially kids, to be drinking soda.”

Pueblo Food Project is at the forefront of the effort after it received a $20,000 subgrant from PDPHE. The state grant was awarded to the local health department because Pueblo was deemed a priority to address obesity by the Public Health Institute at Denver Health, said Gabby Jimenez, a PDPHE health promotion specialist working closely with the program.

A 2019 study by PDPHE revealed a high rate of obesity among Pueblo’s youth. Tackling the matter has long been a priority for PDPHE and a top concern among community leaders and residents.

“We want to know what Pueblo County residents understand about (sugary drinks) and if they’re passionate about making any kind of change to this so that sweetened beverages are not so easily accessible and consumed so regularly, because they are now,” Jimenez said. “It does cause a lot of problems.

“But of course, we don’t want to be shameful because there are families who can’t always afford things that are healthier. So we want to be mindful about how we’re approaching them and that’s why we’re trying to gather community feedback — to really understand where we stand as a community and what knowledge we have.”

Pueblo Food Project released a survey in which participants were polled on their drinks of choice when eating out and opinions of sugary and sweet beverages, among other questions. It’s the first step of the three-year grant project, which is expected to culminate in a policy that could encourage people to seek healthier options.

How Pueblo Food Project will work toward forming a policy

The survey is expected to provide some data, but other outreach alternatives are also in the works to educate the public about sugary beverages and gather more information.

It’s unclear at this time which form those alternatives might take, but one option could be to include a segment in Pueblo Food Project’s cooking classes that analyzes the drinks, Moore said.

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During the program’s duration, the organization will sit in meetings with a statewide coalition of health departments that are working on the grant. It plans to use its youth council to raise awareness about the drinks and collect their feedback on what may make for an effective policy.

Pueblo Food Project must also model healthy behavior strategies within its organization, but those are already in place as it solely serves healthy food and beverage options during its meetings and events, Moore said.

Once enough data are collected, a clearer picture should emerge on what form that policy will take, Jimenez said. At this time, there are several possibilities, including a default beverage policy that would require restaurants to offer healthier options to minors while parents retain the choice to order a sugary drink for their kids.

Another potential route would be to implement a tax targeting those types of drinks, which has been adopted in at least five U.S. cities, including Boulder. A recent study showed that the sales of sugar-sweetened beverages in some areas of those cities fell over time with the tax in place.

Both organizations may have an answer on what the policy will look like at some point this summer, while its adoption could take a year or longer.

“I think it’ll be good for Pueblo Food Project and the community to work on helping each other understand where our food and drinks come from, how we can be our own healer in some ways and change our habits for the most beneficial outcomes,” Moore said.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Could limiting sugary drink consumption improve Pueblo's obesity rate?