Friday, July 02, 2010 -

TOM WILEMON | The Daily News -

Livable Memphis and GrowMemphis now have financial backing to pursue their goals of making it easier for city residents to exercise and eat healthier.

The organizations will share $105,000 over the next two years to push for policy changes and to promote healthy living initiatives.

“It’s a tricky thing to get into the policy conversation,” said Sarah Newstok, program manager for Livable Memphis. “It’s much more abstract than a project.”

 “Working to create safe walking and biking opportunities and development of a food policy council for the community will help Memphis and many of its underserved citizens get and stay healthy.”

– Robert M. Fockler
President of the Community Foundation
But there was nothing abstract about biking amenities being left out of road improvement projects funded with federal stimulus money. Newstok points to that recent incident as a public policy failure.

“To us, this is a huge missed opportunity for 100 percent federal funds to be used to implement our bicycle-pedestrian plan,” she said.

Livable Memphis will devote $65,000 toward its Walk-Bike initiative and push for a place at the table when decisions on public transportation are made.

The other organization, GrowMemphis, will use $40,000 to develop a food policy council.

The money comes from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, The Assisi Foundation, the Plough Foundation, United Way of the Mid-South and the Convergence Partnership Fund of the Tides Foundation.

“Working to create safe walking and biking opportunities and development of a food policy council for the community will help Memphis and many of its underserved citizens get and stay healthy,” said Robert M. “Bob” Fockler, president of the Community Foundation.

Josephine Williams, coordinator of GrowMemphis, said the organization’s grant will help cover salary costs, consultant fees and strategic planning as it works toward establishing a Memphis and Shelby County food policy council.

“Typically, a food policy council brings together stakeholders from all parts of the food system: production, processing, distribution, consumption as well as government agencies, businesses and the nonprofit sector,” Williams said. “Our food system is shaped by a lot of difference agencies. There’s zoning codes that impact the food system. Planning and development impacts the food system. Economic development and health codes do as well. There’s a variety of policies often in disparate parts of the code that impact food.”

Although Livable Memphis considers the omission of bike features from new road projects a setback, the organization recently scored an important victory. The Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission adopted ordinances proposed by Livable Memphis to update bike laws.

And the organization is not content to allow bike facilities, such as designated lanes, be left out of road improvement projects.

“We’ve been to City Council a number of times to try to tweak the policy to increase the possibility that some money would be used for bike facilities,” Newstok said. “We’ve been successful in a number of teeny-tiny ways. Council passed an amendment to the construction bids saying if there are any surplus funds they will be used for bicycle facilities.”

Another top action item for Livable Memphis is to connect the Shelby Farms Greenline with Overton Park.

The path for the Greenline ends at Tillman Street.

“It’s about two miles, but we’re trying to connect those two major recreational facilities, Overton Park and Shelby Farms Park,” she said. “Making that connection to Overton Park is a critical part of the network so that people can ride their bikes for recreation. Also, I think the greenline would be good for transit. That would be a superb commuter line for people going east or into the city on their bikes.”