Free Hispanic Health Fairs Expanding to Texas

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

LOS ANGELES — Fiesta de la Salud — a series of free health fairs at markets catering to Hispanic consumers — will expand beyond Southern California to Texas this year when the parking-lot event is offered in late July at the new El Paso store operated by Mike Provenzano. There is also a possibility similar events could be offered later this year to Hispanic operators in the Pacific Northwest, with potential expansion to the Southwest and Florida, Susan Bremer-Rossow, president of Integrated Marketing & Promotions here, who created the program, told SN. She said the health fairs offer free screenings for glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, HIV and bone density; plus mammograms, pap tests, children's immunizations and flu shots. Over the last three years Fiesta de la Salud has screened more than 50,000 people, about 25% of whom were found to have some medical condition they didn't know they had, Bremer-Rossow pointed out. "If anyone who attends our health fairs is found to need additional medical services, we work hard to find those services at little or no cost in their own community," she said. The events are funded by packaged goods companies, which use the health fairs to promote healthful products to Hispanic consumers.

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