Das, who is one of the newest national ambassadors for the American Heart Association’s EmPowered To Serve movement, is featured in Take Me Home, a short video docu-series produced by the Association in collaboration with MIRAR. The video, which also includes singer/actress Demetria McKinney (House of Payne, Saints & Sinners, RHOA 7), chronicles Das’ life growing up in a food desert in Peyton Forest, a community of Atlanta, Georgia.
Music Industry Veteran Shanti Das
“After learning about the social determinants of health, I decided to learn more about how that may have impacted the community where I grew up. In the process, I learned that I basically grew up in a food desert, which is a community without easy access to healthy food options. This is driving a lot of health issues in my community such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke,” says Das, CEO and founder of Press Reset Entertainment. “In fact, I found that 2 million Georgians, including 500,000 children live in food deserts. There are more than 35 food deserts just in the perimeter of Metro-Atanta.”
“I want to make sure that my generation is going “home” and helping their communities to get active and making sure they have the proper access to healthy living that they need,” she says.
A private viewing of the Take Me Home video was held on January 10 at DJ Drama’s Mean Street Studios in Atlanta to an intimate list of supporters including: DJ Drama, Tameka Foster, Kawan Prather, Stevie Baggs, Rashan Ali, Ebony Steele ,Ceasar Mitchell and more.
Heart disease, including stroke is the No. 1 killer of all Americans, and African Americans and Hispanics are at increased risk compared to other populations. All too often, people in urban communities suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity leading to heart disease and stroke at much higher rates than their Caucasian counterparts. In too many of the communities there are barriers to healthy living such as, lack of access to large grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables; lack of access to safe places to exercise and lack of equitable heath care.
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