Community Cooks Meal Box Program provides over half a million meals amid record need
As with many things, COVID-19 made it harder for local families to afford and access nutritious food, especially those living in underserved communities and experiencing low income. Minnesota food shelf visits hit a record high in 2020, up 7 percent from the previous year.
In response, M Health Fairview convened a group of local organizations including Appetite for Change, The Sanneh Foundation, East Side Table, The Food Group, The Good Acre, and Transforming the Table to create solutions. The group acted swiftly and decided to expand a make-at-home meal kit concept started by East Side Table, a program initiated by M Health Fairview Community Advancement several years earlier.
“Once COVID-19 hit, it became clear to us and our partners that the make-at-home meal kit wasn’t enough,” said Terese Hill, supervisor of food systems strategy with M Health Fairview Community Advancement. “It was a strong program that saw positive results, and we were hearing from the community that we needed to expand the program to reach more people within and beyond St. Paul’s East Side. Together with our partner organizations, we collaboratively designed and coordinated the new Community Cooks Meal Box Program.”
Weekly meals provided to hundreds of households
Our partners represent food sourcing, hunger relief, small business, healthcare, and community nonprofits. Together, we developed an infrastructure and began recruiting program participants through their existing community outreach. The wide geography of our partners helps provide this resource to more families across the Twin Cities.
Each week households participating in the Community Cooks Meal Box program receive a free 12-serving meal box with items such as Minnesota-grown produce, protein, and pantry staples. The boxes also include culturally appropriate recipes with different meal ideas using the ingredients and nutrition education. Many of the items are not readily available at food shelves. Staple ingredients such as spice blends, sauces, and oil help families build their pantry.
In 2020, the 30-week program averaged 600 participating households per week. Together with partners, we distributed roughly 20,000 12-serving meal boxes throughout the course of the program. Among participating households, there was a 12 percent decrease in those experiencing food insecurity. In addition, over 100,000 pounds of local produce was purchased from growers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
In 2021, participation increased to 783 households.
Addressing social determinants of health, from nutrition to employment
“This grant-funded collaboration is addressing food access and supporting local growers — it’s a win-win and aligned with our overall ‘Food is Medicine’ strategy,” said John Swanholm, vice president of M Health Fairview Community Advancement. “The results from the first two years of the program are amazing. We started this year’s program at the end of June, and we plan to provide 1,500 meal boxes per week for 30 weeks — that’s a total of 540,000 meals. We also plan to purchase 160,000 pounds of produce from local growers.”
Another aspect of the program is youth workforce development. Youth are hired to pack the meal boxes. This provides participants with well-paying employment and prepares them for the workforce with training in food and pallet jack safety, food production education, and specialized classes in business development, entrepreneurship, and financial management.
The Community Cooks Meal Box Program is not just a food delivery effort. It’s a comprehensive program that is positively impacting the social determinants of health — factors in our lives that may not seem to be directly health-related, but have a dramatic effect on our health. These factors include income, community environment, and access to nutrition).
The program is providing healthy food for participants to prepare at home, teaching families cooking skills, creating a local system of farm-to-family food distribution, and decreasing food insecurity. The result is a systemic solution for healthy food access across the Twin Cities.
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