Nourishing the Future for Families

With a food insecurity rate of 11.8%, many families in Wisconsin struggle to access healthy food on a regular basis. This is especially true in many of the rural counties served by Great Rivers United Way. Despite a robust network of food banks and community partners dedicated to addressing the issue of hunger, families continued to face challenges with accessing nutritious food. As it turns out, the problem is not solely access to food itself.

According to Community Health Director Lindsey Purl, some people “had never tried a vegetable, didn’t learn skills like how to cook a meal when they were growing up, and didn’t have utensils, like a can opener, to even begin cooking the food they received from local food pantries.” Families with access to food often did not know how to turn ingredients into healthy meals.
To address this challenge, Great Rivers United Way launched the Nourishing Futures project using a grant from Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin. The project’s goal is to support families in cooking healthier meals with an emphasis on prenatal and postpartum moms and their families. The families enrolled in the program vary— from a mother with five children to a teenage mom in high school.  According to Community Health Strategist Danielle Krozel, “We really want to ensure opportunities for adequate nutrition for mom and growing baby, and potentially other children in the household.”

We really want to ensure opportunities for adequate nutrition for mom and growing baby, and potentially other children in the household.”

During the four-step project, the Community Health Worker (CHW) provides a budget to each family and identifies the family’s needs from gaps in kitchen equipment to food safety practices. Then, the CHW helps the family choose a recipe, shops, and visits the home to guide them through the meal preparation process. Finally, the family and CHW review the meal to help reinforce cooking together as a family routine. 
According to CHW Jennifer Roberts, the program has a 100% success rate. In her experience, the fixes are often simple. Two families initially refused to prepare chicken because they were afraid of undercooking it. After Jennifer provided them with a kitchen thermometer, the family promised to make the meal again.

The Nourishing Futures project leverages United Way’s extensive network of community health workers, who can identify gaps in families' access to nutritious food and mobilize community partners to meet those needs. Through similar partnerships and projects, we are building healthier communities where every family has the opportunity to nourish their future.