Nutrition & Wellness

Whether it’s lack of access to healthy food or lack of funds, those who are food insecure often have to eat inexpensive, less nutritious food. This can lead to chronic diet-related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. They offer have to make difficult tradeoffs as well, like paying rent over medication or a doctor visit, so their health takes a hit. Our Nutrition and Wellness program tackles these challenges head on by educating and empowering people to make healthier choices and dietary changes.

Our Nutrition and Wellness team actively teaches the importance of healthy eating in a variety of ways. Using a mobile display with clients at a mobile food pantry, using hands-on tools to engage partner agencies at the Food Bank or with clients at other food distribution sites. The Food Bank also has an onsite Learning Kitchen where partner agencies and community partners learn healthy cooking skills to share with their clients.

We work with partner agencies to develop learning opportunities tailored to the unique health and nutrition needs of their specific clients. We focus on those needs for nutrition education and recipe development to help individuals learn how to manage their health with food on a low budget. We also host classes in our Learning Kitchen or at partner agencies to demonstrate how to prepare healthy, delicious, and affordable meals. Participants taste the food, learn why healthy food is important, and leave with a recipe.