Healthy Plates Healthy Families

Healthy Plates, Healthy Families

Fresh, healthy food choices make for healthier, happier individuals and families. We created our Healthy Plates, Healthy Families Program with this in mind. The goal of this program is to align our food procurement and distribution with the federal MyPlate nutrition guidelines, and to increase the availability of fresh produce to our hunger-relief partners and those they serve.

In addition to making healthy foods available through our distribution network, the Food Bank provides nutrition education programs to help our partner agencies and their clients access the information they need to plan and prepare healthier meals. Our Healthy Plates, Healthy Families initiatives include:

Fresh Produce Distribution

Fresh produce is an integral part of a healthy diet. We’ve committed to increasing the amount of fresh produce we distribute to our hunger-relief partners, and are on track to distribute an additional 100,000 of fresh produce to our agencies this year.

Nutrition Education & Training

Our annual Nutrition Education Workshop is available to all our hunger-relief partner agencies. This half-day session covers nutrition basics and MyPlate Guidelines, as well as tips and tools for food planning and preparation. We also provide healthy and easy-to-prepare recipes that feature seasonal produce and items commonly found in our food distributions.

Food Safety Knowledge

Our work doesn’t end after the food is delivered to our hunger-relief partners. We have an obligation to ensure that our partners are knowledgeable about the food safety measures required to maintain the quality and safety of the food we provide. Our team provides on-going food safety education to our food distribution partners so they can understand and utilize best practices in safe food handling, storage and distribution.