From the Statehouse: Lawmakers file bills to combat lack of fresh foods and to protect referees

 

 

FOOD DESERTS

 

Indiana Senators are considering a grant fund to encourage grocery stores to fill the gap in Indiana food deserts.

The bill defines a food desert as a five-mile area where 90-percent or more of the available food options are processed foods, not fresh.

A Senate committee has recommended setting aside a million dollars to help stores open in underserved areas, or buy equipment to allow them to stock fresh fruits and vegetables.

Logansport Republican Randy Head says he’s confident people will make healthy choices if they have the opportunity, but says many people in rural Indiana or in inner cities don’t have easy access to anything but convenience stores.

Head says filling the supermarket gaps would reduce health costs linked to obesity and diet-related diseases, and boost the economy as well. He says a similar program in Philadelphia produced $1.50 in investment for every dollar spent, as businesses opened next door to the new grocery stores to take advantage of the foot traffic,

Head proposed a 15-million-dollar grant fund last year. That proposal also passed the Commerce Committee, but died in the Appropriations Committee. Head’s hoping the scaled-down version can make it to the Senate floor.

 


 

 

 

REF PROTECTION

 

An Indiana lawmaker wants a law to protect referees. A Pennsylvania teacher and coach remain on leave after video appeared showing him head-butting a referee over the weekend. Senator Ron Alting is pushing a measure to help protect all refs in the state of Indiana. The bill would make battery on a sports official a Class A misdemeanor–punishable with at least a year behind bars and 5-thousand dollars in fines. He says high school refs have personally asked him for better protection, as these types of incidents are becoming much too common