(Continued….) RE-FUNDED GRANT RECIPIENTS IN FY2022 and FY2023:
With support from Healthy Berkeley, 18 Reasons will expand our capacity to reach Berkeley residents with our Cooking Matters (CM) series, Cooking Matters at the Store (CMATS) tours, and Cooking Matters Peer Education program. Cooking Matters is an interactive nutrition education program for kids, teens, parents, families, and seniors that uses hands-on cooking practice and weekly nutrition discussions to help build healthy habits. Our Cooking Matters programs are proven to reduce sugar¬-sweetened beverage consumption by an average of 52%.
Cooking Matters is a six-week series of hands-on cooking and nutrition education classes. Since the start of the COVID shutdown last March, all classes have been offered virtually via Zoom. Families receive weekly bags of groceries, then gather on Zoom to cook along with our instructors. Cooking Matters classes are taught by peer health educators (community members who have graduated from a Cooking Matters class and received eight weeks of additional training from 18 Reasons).
Berkeley Youth Alternatives will implement the Urban Agriculture and Team Nutrition program in FY 2020 and FY 2021 through activities that include the following: a) recruit, hire, and train 4 garden and nutrition intern youth educators to promote healthy alternatives to SSBs and conduct interactive workshops to at least 1000 children and youth; b) engage Youth Educators to re-launch the BYA “no-cost” Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program monthly boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables; and c) engage in a campaign to convert unused land into a community garden. The Youth Educators will encourage youth above the age of 12 to download BYA’s Healthy App to receive notifications about healthy eating, exercise, events, and ideas that can employ to change things in their community
Community Health Education Institute’s (CHEI) Artists Against Soda project will be operated out of Berkeley City College (BCC), that has a student body is 15% African-American and 25% Latino. BCC is in downtown Berkeley, which also includes Berkeley High School (BHS). BHS's student body is similar to BCC's - 15% African-American and 23% Latino. Nearly 40% of BCC and BHS students are from priority populations - populations that are disproportionately targeted by beverage industry marketing - and these students have easy access to SSBs. CHEI expects the funded activities to reach between 800-900 African-American and/or Latino youth aged 12-21.
The goal of the Veggie Rx for Healthy Food and Beverages project is to increase capacity, knowledge, and skills of volunteers and staff members of two LifeLong Medical Care (LLMC) clinics in Berkeley in offering patients a comprehensive behavior change education program to improve diets and reduce sugary beverage consumption through standardized and ongoing nutrition education. To this end, Fresh Approach will implement a train-the-trainer program with LLMC’s AmeriCorps members, other volunteers, and staff members to incorporate a robust education program on nutrition and healthy beverages as a part of core curriculum offered in LLMC group health classes. Fresh Approach will also provide technical assistance to enhance their evaluation tools and behavior assessment regarding healthy food and beverages consumption.
