HACAP gets $70,000 grant to encourage healthier eating

HACAP is receiving $70,000 in grant funding to address hunger, malnutrition and chronic disease through offering healthier foods and decreasing the supply of unhealthy options at food banks.

The Hawkeye Area Community Action Program Food Reservoir has joined the Partnership for a Healthier America’s Health Hunger Relief initiative.

The partnership with the national nonprofit will aim to fight for food equity, a news release said.

The HACAP Food Reservoir is one of 30 new Health Hunger Relief partners and will implement a “comprehensive nutrition-ranking system” over the next two years.

Partnership for a Healthier America also will provide technical assistance to help HACAP and its other partners understand the nutritional quality of the organization’s food inventory and help assist in making decisions to improve that nutritional quality.

“Individuals with a healthy diet are less likely to face chronic health conditions that require expensive medication, will miss less work and school, and have more energy,” HACAP Food Reservoir Development Manager Allyn Glenn-Angell said in the release. “By partnering with PHA we can help provide families, seniors, and children with nutritious food that will help them care for themselves and set them up for success in other areas of life.”

Partnership for a Healthier America President and CEO Nancy Roman said these partnerships serve as the foundation to transform the “food landscape” in pursuit of food equity.

“We’re ensuring that communities and families all across the country have access to healthier, high-quality, culturally relevant and nutritious foods,” she said.

The $70,000 HACAP has received will be used to establish the foundation needed to implement the nutrition-ranking system and also to help distribute fresh produce.

Partnership for a Healthier America works with 28 partners across the country and has brought 115 million pounds of healthy food into the emergency food system, a news release said. Adding 30 new partners will double the program’s reach across 18 states.

The Food Bank of Iowa, based in Des Moines, also is one of the organization’s new partners in this grant program.

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