INVESTMENTS

$62,000

City Sprouts Inc.

The City Sprouts Urban Farming Summer Internship provides underserved youth with the opportunity to learn about horticulture, agriculture, culinary arts, nutrition and public health. The interns prepare the soil, plant, water, harvest and preserve fruits and vegetables at the farm. The students learn skills to prepare them for Workforce Readiness. The students learn to fill out an application, build a resume and go through an interview process.They receive training to continue in a career in horticulture/ agriculture, culinary arts, public health or education. Several of their interns have gone on to enroll in the Culinary Program at Metropolitan Community College, secure employment at an after school program working with elementary students, advance in opportunities at a restaurant or work in in a retail setting with organic farming. The under-served youth build life skills by developing self-confidence, persistence, a positive mind-set and building positive adult/peer relationships. The financial literacy training they receive provides education about saving, budgeting, banking and managing money.

Latino Center of the Midlands

The Nutrition and Well-being program aims to address the need of access to affordable and healthy fruits and vegetables in the southeast Omaha community by utilizing a place-based approach to engage community promotoras, trained in urban agriculture and healthy living, to provide education and training for families and community members to learn to build, grow, and maintain their own backyard garden. Promotoras are community residents who have been trained in basic health education and who build trusting relationships within their community to bridge the gap between their diverse community and the healthcare system. Access to healthy, affordable foods is not only important as it relates to hunger and the related  health impacts, but also, an unhealthy diet is linked to several chronic diseases such as  obesity, diabetes, heart disease and more. CHNA data shows higher levels of obesity and diabetes in the southeast Omaha community compared to the Omaha Metro Area. In addition, research shows gardening can reduce stress and anxiety, which CHNA data also shows is a need in the southeast Omaha community with 13% of residents perceiving most days as “extremely” or “very” stressful compared to 10% of residents in the Omaha Metro Area. Therefore, this intervention has potential to not only directly increase access to healthy,  affordable foods but to impact mental health and chronic disease in this community.

No More Empty Pots

The Community Market Basket program has been a central programming operation of No More Empty Pots since 2012. It is a food distribution program with a goal to remove barriers for people to equitably access and consume more local fruits and vegetables. Nutrition education and cooking demonstrations give participants provide support for families and individuals.