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Healthworks, Nonprofit Gym In Boston, Teaches Healthy Living In Poor Community

Here is an feel good article I found from The Huffington Post

In an urban, low income Boston neighborhood, lack of access to healthy food and fitness centers gives the area a high rate of obesity. The introduction of Healthworks, a nonprofit gym, is aiming to reduce obesity and teach healthy living to local women.

The gym charges each member based on their income, letting some members pay as little as $10 a month. Healthworks provides a safe and supportive environment for women to exercise in a community where fitness centers are either nonexistent or too expensive, and exercising outdoors isn’t always an option.

One resident sites high crime in the area as the reason why many in the neighborhood are afraid to exercise outdoors.

“So many people here are obese and they want to walk and it is really unsafe,” [Mary] Shaw says.

The fitness center also has plans to open up a teaching kitchen in the building, offering services to help gym members learn how to make healthy meals at home.

NPR reports from Boston