Our new and innovative nutrition education program, Food Changes Lives, will provide practical nutrition education and health benefits to thousands of low-income individuals across our region. 

In 1997, recognizing the importance of nutrition education and information, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts created a Nutrition Education program.  Over the years, our commitment to nutrition analysis and education has manifested in many ways.

At over 12%, western Massachusetts’s poverty rate is three points higher than the state and national averages.  Poverty is the leading indicator of hunger and food insecurity.*  It is well understood that a chronic low-income status has attendant diet-related health risks, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.  Children are at particular risk: studies have shown that 18% of low-income toddlers and infants require medical treatment for iron-deficiency anemia (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998), and low-income children suffer higher rates of impaired cognitive and brain development, lowered immune response, and short stature. (Brown and Pollitt, 1996; Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy, 1998; Metallinos-Katsaras and Gorman, 1999; Pollitt, 1995; and Pollitt and Metallinos-Katsaras and Gorman.)  Low-income children are also at increased risk of obesity (Center on Hunger and Poverty, 1999), which can and often does co-exist with nutritional deficiencies among low-income individuals.

Across the nation, food banks and our allies are recognizing that we must expand the scope of our analysis and work.  While maintaining our commitment to programs which address the crisis of immediate individual hunger, it is imperative that food banks initiate programs that work pro-actively to help achieve sustainable community food security.

Toward this end, The Food Bank’s nutrition program will address the elevated risk of diet-related diseases and negative manifestations of hunger by assisting our member programs and their constituents in developing skills that stretch their food dollars to prevent food shortages, maximize their nutritional intake, and access nutritional support programs such as WIC, Food Stamps, and school meal programs.

One of the centerpieces of our 2007/8 nutrition program will be the piloting of CHOP, or the Choosing Healthy Options Program.  Part food analysis, part food education, CHOP was created by the Greater Pittsburg Community Food Bank (please see associated material, links below).  This year’s nutrition work will be furthered by The Food Bank’s licensed nutritionist and on-site nutrition interns.

•    Hunger and Food Insecurity Defined:  Hunger is “the painful or uneasy sensation caused by a recurrent and involuntary lack of food.”  Food Insecurity occurs when access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods is either severely limited or uncertain, or the ability to attain food occurs in socially unacceptable ways.  (Source: Center on Hunger and Poverty, 1999)

The objectives of Food Changes Lives are:

•   To assess and target elder nutrition, and health issues and     needs such as diabetes care
•   To assess and target the nutrition education needs of our member agencies and their clients
•   To institute a nutritional rating system for all the foods that pass through our warehouse, thereby helping us place a premium on foods with high nutritional value, while also raising the nutrition-awareness of our member agencies.

Contact The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts 413-247-9738 for more information about the Nutrition Program.