Cooking For A Cause: A Case Study

As the US national debt nears $20 trillion, government programs are being looked to be cut, one of those being the SNAP program. SNAP is a federal program which offers nutrition assistance to low income families, by use of food-stamps, while also providing economic benefits to communities (“Supplemental”). SNAP is the largest program in domestic hunger safety (“Supplemental”), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) works with nutrition educators, faith based organizations, and neighborhood organizations to help those eligible for the SNAP program make informed decisions about applying (“Supplemental”). The FNS also works with the retail community and State partners to improve the program’s integrity and administration (“Supplemental”). The SNAP

The “Cooking Matter” program will be responsible for three interventions to help alleviate child hunger by recruiting college student participants. (See appendix J for group work VII on intervention development). The first intervention was “Read It before You Eat It!” this intervention will demonstrate the correct way to read nutrition and food labels. Each participant will examine the actual food packaging labels of different food items such as whole wheat pasta, regular pasta, bread, cheese, and

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience of the workings of the Houston Food Bank and the concepts discussed during the course which were demonstrated through our volunteer experience.

During the time I spent volunteering at John C. Lincoln’s Food Bank, I was able to provide food, individual hygiene items, and infant supplies to families struggling to obtain these critical items for their families. When I first arrived at the food bank, I spent time constructing care packages with soap, toothbrushes, personal wipes, and other essential items for health care. Later in the day, I had the unique opportunity to assist with the simulated grocery store within the food bank. The structure of the store allowed individuals receiving food to feel as though they were actively participating instead of passively accepting food and feeling helpless. Overall, I was able to instill a sense of self-efficiency in individuals who were struggling to provide for their families while personally interacting and sharing my time in a meaningful way.

This particular article is written by Patricia A. Duffy who states that low income families use the food pantry for emergence assistance for food, aside from the traditional government programs; this article suggests that food pantries are heavily used for emergency food (Duffy). The article focuses more on lower income families instead of the homeless. It compares food stamp programs along with the food pantry to understand how they both tie in to one another. There are various statistics and interviews of those who participate in such programs across the nation.

Before participating in this project I was not fully aware of how people in my area were suffering and I had no idea of the aid certain institutions provided to the people who were in need of help. Through this project I was able to see that a large number of low-income people in Decatur were suffering from a lack of access to healthy and affordable food options. Being able to go to the grocery store anytime I want and buy anything I need is a privilege that I took for granted for far too long. I now understand that there are some people in the area that have no means of transportation so they must walk or take the bus just to get something to eat. Unfortunately many of the places surrounding these low-income residents are overpriced so they residents are forced to eat unhealthy food. This is why the Inn plays such a vital role in the lives of these people. Everyone in the area has access to fresh and healthy food every single day thanks to the Inn, which for some people is probably a life saver. The Inn receives donations of food all the time from people all over the area. I have seen a few flyers and posters around campus about donating food to homeless shelters and it seems there is always someone doing a food drive. Every year Millikin has a chili bowl event where art students make bowls in the ceramics studio. People can they purchase the bowls at

Early one November morning a woman stared at me with utter disbelief, tears of gratitude streaming down her cheeks."Thank you," she mouthed silently to me, clutching her son to her chest. I was proud knowing that, because of my efforts, her family and many more who struggle with poverty would be able to share a Thanksgiving meal. I knew that many children in my community would not be able to celebrate the holiday as others might because their parents could not afford to buy food items, and so as Vice President of a community service club called Interact, I was inspired to provide these children with a Thanksgiving dinner. The club officers and I sat crowded around our adviser's desk brainstorming how we would collect ingredients. We decided

The first intervention program this paper will review is called SNAP-Education, or SNAP-Ed. Assisting food insecure families through this program provides education on how to eat nutritiously and could decrease obesity rates among SNAP participants. SNAP-Education “supports evidence-based nutrition education and obesity prevention interventions and projects for persons eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through complementary direct

Attempting to urge student involvement and the rising costs of providing meals is a constant issue with the companies which provides meals for the schools. In the meantime, the issue remains how to increase the nutritional values of the food provided and assisting the companies that provide the food to do so and to maintain a stable program and its honesty, especially in making sure that children who are not eligible do not receive these reduced cost or free meals (Ralston, Newman, Clauson, Guthrie, & Buzby, 2008, p. iii).

Since its implementation, S.P.A.R.R have experienced a surge of students seeking to utilize our resources, but since our program is run by student-parent with limited times, the structural changes needed for our program has failed to keep up with its rising physical demands. As a result, many of the student parents who are in need of food security are turned away. Therefore, with the support of your organization, we hope that S.P.A.R.R Food Donation Program will meet with its structural demands by improving the consistency of their food services through better pick-up and coordinated food practices, its efficiency by hiring a group of interns that will be responsible for collaborating with other food justice programs and by helping us quantify our needs, so that we can present these changes to Financial Aid and make our program no longer

Bushwick Cooks’ objective is to offer programs that bridge the gap of healthy eating to families with

The target population of the community-based cooking program is community-dwelling adults, aged 65+ years, living independently in an apartment complex for individuals on a fixed income. Participants must not have any physical or cognitive limitations that would prevent them from successfully engaging in and completing the 4-week program independently, with the exception of minor adaptive equipment and/or minor environmental

I am Kristyana and my food culture comes from the South and the Pacific Northwest. My parents and grandparents ate a lot of greens, mac and cheese, meat, seafood, and grains. We normally eat together on Sundays, holidays, and family gatherings. My grandmother and mother does most of the cooking. I learned many different techniques and recipe from my family and how to choose the right foods.

nourishing. Catering to the community is not a simple task: a menu must be planned out

In 2014, a foundation called Feeding America did a survey on the people they serve and found that in order to stretch their food budgets 79% of them purchase inexpensive and unhealthy food in order to stay fed. This can seriously impact their health, because no matter the age, healthy bodies and minds require nutritious meals. In some cases, food insecurity can even lead to Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. These are just a few examples of why food insecurity is so harmful. Fortunately, there are many organizations, clubs, and foundations that are committed to ending hunger in America, and eventually the world. The first step to solving this problem is spreading information, and realizing just how dangerous food insecurity is, and who it affects. After learning these things, you may want to help and there are many ways to do that. I’m sure in the past, you've donated food to the annual canned food drive our school puts on, and that’s just one way you can contribute to solving this problem. There are many organizations that ask for donations and will put your money to great use, for example every dollar you donate to Feeding America will provide 11 meals for a child in need.If you don’t have food or money to donate, you can donate