Nutrition Education and Wellness Initiatives
We’re here to help more families in Arkansas access nutritious food and create delicious meals. We believe that healthy food is the foundation of a healthy community, and that regardless of budget, foods that nourish and heal the body should be available and affordable to all.
Nutrition Education
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Wellness Initiatives
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Everyone deserves nutritious, wholesome meals!
Nutrition Education is one of the Alliance’s core programs in a holistic approach to combating food insecurity. We envision an Arkansas where all people have reliable, affordable food choices and the skills to create enjoyable meals for their health.
Participants learn about:
Cooking & Nutrition
Meal Planning & Prepping
Food Budgeting & Healthy Grocery Shopping
Stretching Ingredients & SNAP Dollars
Food Storage & Minimizing Food Waste
Nutrition Education Options
Cooking Matters
This program helps families on a limited food budget, shop for and prepare healthy meals at home. It’s hands-on, learner-centered food skills education based on USDA’s My Plate guidelines, and held in convenient, familiar locations. Participants cook together, eat together, and are sent home with a bag full of nutritious food to practice the recipes taught in class. Cooking Matters emphasizes food as nourishment and enjoyment, as well as a catalyst in building healthier communities.
Food Smarts
Food Smarts is a flexible, discussion-led cooking and nutrition curriculum, and like Cooking Matters, is based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This curriculum was designed by Leah’s Pantry to ensure all people have access to healthy food and feel competent preparing easy, nutritious meals. Food Smarts is implemented through the lens of trauma and resilience, exhibiting that positive, nourishing food experiences can heal an individual, encourage healthy community norms, promote nutrition security, and support the realignment of broken food systems.
Grocery Store Tours
Grocery Store Tours are single-session, hands-on lessons that teach shoppers the principles of MyPlate, economical ways to buy more fruits and vegetables, how to compare unit prices to save money, and how to read nutrition labels and ingredient lists to identify whole grains and fiber and avoid food high in added sugar, sodium, and saturated fats. These tours are designed to be highly interactive, as participants are asked open ended questions and encouraged to be “food detectives” to decipher ingredient lists, read and compare food labels, and avoid common marketing tricks.
On the Road
Our team also travels the state, attending health fairs and conferences, nutritional workshops on college campuses, and tabling events with nutrition activities and handouts. We can also lead virtual classes accessible from anywhere. Finally, we can customize a pop-up grocery store tour for a classroom or office setting, offer a food demo and tasting at events, or give a presentation on nutrition security.
Partner Support Includes:
Customized Training
Instructor & Participant Books
Bag of Kitchen Utensils for Participants
Class Stipends for Groceries
When available
Kitchen Equipment Starter Kits
Five ways you can get involved
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Get involved in our Nutrition Education Program!
Join our community cooking program and connect through food!
what happens next?
Contact us
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Meet with us over Zoom
After reaching out, we will work to schedule a Zoom call with you, where we explore the details of working together.
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Attend a Training
Depending on your chosen curriculum and location, we will schedule this online or in person.
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Fill out paperwork
After you are trained, you will receive necessary paperwork. We request this be filled out 4 weeks before your class/tour begins.
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Recruit Participants, Gather, and Cook Together!
We recommend using locations where people already gather, such as community centers, churches, libraries, or schools.
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Are You In Need?
We would like to help you find the resources you need.
Contact
200 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 1300
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
Newsletter
The Alliance Alert goes out to members, advocates and others who want to stay up on hunger issues in Arkansas. See our latest newsletter.
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