Tina is a busy mom and grandmother. She balances family time with work and school schedules. She loves to cook but does not always have the time to prepare the home cooking that her mom did. Sometimes her health takes a back seat.
Financial support from Arnold Palmer Invitational and partnerships with Alliance for Community Health, Orlando Health, and Orange Blossom Family Health helped connect patients like Tina with food resources, like a monthly Healthy Food Box available at her healthcare provider.
“When we would run out of SNAP funds, these boxes were very helpful,” Tina recalls. “The vegetables came in handy.”
Throughout the program, she was excited to see what came in each box, especially when there was meat or milk for her grandson.
She looked up lots of recipes to make the most of the ingredients in the box. Some family favorites were stuffed bell peppers with cauliflower rice and all the different squashes.
“The biggest change to our diet was making mashed squash instead of mashed potatoes,” she says. “It was something we never thought to make before but really liked it.”
Now that the program has ended Tina hopes to keep eating the fruits and vegetables she added to her diet. Tina and other families in the program can connect with a Community Health Worker who can help them find additional community resources for accessing healthy foods, as well as Second Harvest's Food Finder, to find feeding partners in their area.
“The whole program was amazing. Thank you for providing for families like mine,” she said.
Helping individuals and families create healthier habits with access to nutritious food is just one food is medicine strategy that is transforming community health, one neighbor at a time.
