Since 2016 the Derek Lewis Foundation has partnered with America’s beverage companies as part of the industry’s initiative to reduce the sugar consumed from beverages and support healthier communities nationwide. Sip & Savor recently spoke with Derek Lewis II to learn more about how they are supporting families across Little Rock.

S&S: Your family founded the Derek Lewis Foundation 25 years ago, why was it so important to give back and why did you choose health and wellness as your area of focus?

DLF: My father Dr. Derek Lewis grew up in the very poor, rural share cropper town of Hughes, Arkansas. He was able to get out through medicine and opened a primary care clinic in Little Rock 30 years ago. The foundation and our focus on health and wellness was born directly out of that. He had the opportunity to give back to his community and that duty and responsibility continues to be a core value of our family and the foundation.

S&S: Arkansas’ challenges with health issues such as obesity are well documented, how are the services that DLF offers directed at helping support a healthier community?

DLF: We do a lot from head to toe to try to support healthier families in Little Rock. We have summer camps for youth to encourage healthier habits at an earlier age, we put on events like our Bike For Kids which donates bikes to low-income kids to encourage them to be more active, but our main event each year is our Health Expo.

S&S: Tell us more about the Health Expo, who can attend and what services and information are you offering there?

DLF: Our Health Expo takes place in Little Rock and is 100 percent free to all ages in our community. We have about 70 vendors and are offering information on how and where to get services that will help people live healthier and screenings where we provide free testing on everything from hearing and vision to HIV. The Health Expo is our main focus and if we can help one person with the services we are offering, we consider it a success. I have seen someone detect the early stages of prostate cancer with one of these free screenings and knowing that we are able to help these people and get them the services they need is why we do this.

S&S: The Foundation is celebrating their 25^th Anniversary this year, how have you evolved and what do you hope for the next 25 years?

DLF: We are committed to serving families in Little Rock. Being here for 25 years we have seen generations within the same family come to us for services and being able to develop these relationships in our community is important to us. As a foundation, we want to help these families in achieving a healthier lifestyle however we can, but chronic issues such as obesity and diabetes are not challenges that anyone can solve alone or through one Health Expo. In order to continue to have an impact we want to continue to partner with other organizations so that we are sharing resources and learnings and having a greater impact than any of us could on our own.

S&S: Speaking of partnerships, why was it important for you to partner with America’s beverage companies on their initiative to reduce sugar and calories consumed from beverages?

DLF: We partnered with these companies because we believe in choice and educating our consumers and community. That’s what leads to a healthy community and the more we work together, the greater impact and reach we can have.  Since we have been a part of this community for many years we can help provide these companies insight into the community and the challenges we face and we are able to grow our programs at the same time in order to reach more people.

To learn more about the Derek Lewis Foundation, click here and if you are in the Little Rock area, you can attend this year’s Health & Wellness Expo on June, 2^nd.