Like many North Philadelphia neighborhoods, Strawberry Mansion is one devoid of proper food markets, and corner stores, as a result, are a primary source for groceries. These stores often do not carry fresh food, and kids stopping in for breakfast on this April morning were, as usual, tempted with the high-calorie, low-cost options. This is a dynamic that contributes to a growing phenomenon: while poverty in other countries often leads to malnutrition and unhealthy thinness, in the Unites States, it leads to obesity.
Author Archives: keith
Video: Getting healthy foods into corner stores.
In this documentary short, Briana Almaguer Sandoval, a project manager with The Food Trust's Healthy Corner Store Initiative, explains the process of getting healthy foods into corner stores.
This is part of my story on childhood obesity for Philadelphia Neighborhoods. Read it here.
sp11strawberrymansionobesity from Philadelphia Neighborhoods on Vimeo.
Video: Working Philadelphia II–The Italian Market
I really can't stand listening to this video. I don't know where my weird anchor voice came from. Anyway, here's a short video about a cheese monger who works at the Italian Market in Philadelphia.
Voices of a shooting
On Oct. 30, 2010, Temple University student Ian Hirst-Hermans was shot in the chest after a Halloween party. What follows is the story of that evening, told for the first time, from the perspective of Ian Hirst-Hermans, who survived the shooting, and his friends who witnessed the events.
Philadelphia’s Tea Party: How to protest against yourself
Around lunch time at the Blue Dog Pub in Lansdale, Diana Reimer holds a glass of white wine and smiles over a large plate of salad as she tells me what she thinks about health care reform.
"Oh my God; it's horrible," she says. "It's horrible. It's socialized medicine! We don't want the government to run everything."
At age 10, he was scared. But now?
An essay I wrote about being diagnosed with lymphoma has been published in the Health & Science section of The Washington Post. This is the first time my work has ever been published in a national publication, and the process was a lot of fun. I was fortunate enough to work directly with Frances Stead Sellers and Nancy Szokan, who edited the piece.
Read it here.
View PDFs:
Health & Science E01
Health & Science E06
The cheesesteak that wasn’t
When I moved from Philadelphia to Washington for a summer internship, I was concerned about how I’d handle my ravenous cheesesteak cravings. Once those gorgeous slabs of gooey bliss were out of sight, I wasn’t so sure they’d also be out of mind. At least for this one summer, I decided, I could finally spare myself the calories, the expense, and the sporadic, late-night trips in pajamas to Pat’s or Jim’s. Continue reading
Why you shouldn’t find love on SEPTA
So many stories come out of Philadelphians’ SEPTA woes. But this Valentine’s Day, SEPTA must have been sick of hearing about the hammer attacks, stabbings over iPhones and transit police shootings. So, to lighten the mood a bit, they asked to hear your SEPTA love stories.
Beaten to the punch in Gmail and Twitter accounts
Someone has been stealing my online thunder since the mid ‘90s. My name, Keith Collins, is not that common, but every time I go to setup a new e-mail account or register to a Web site, the other Keith Collins has already beaten me to the punch. This jerk is everywhere. He is the reason my Gmail name ends in a goshdarn “01.” He is apparently even here at Temple and registered his TUmail alias long before I could. When I found he had taken my name on Twitter, and therefore stolen my birthright to my own special Twitter URL, I was ready to flip out.
Video: Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
In this short documentary about the Philadelphia Mural Arts program, I interview Cathy Harris.
This project was co-produced by Andrew Whitlatch and Ashley Hall.
