Nourish—an eight-week nutrition education and meal kit delivery program originally developed by Sunday Suppers Philadelphia—has found a new home at NKCDC.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Nourish as we continue to make the transition to its new life as a program of NKCDC. We have a few exciting things to report.
OUR FIRST COHORT
First, Nourish is launching its first cohort with NKCDC. For this first round, program manager Jackie Saez has been working with We CAN, a crime reduction collaborative of three Kensington service organizations—Impact Services, HACE, and NKCDC.
Over three years, We CAN has identified key blocks across the Kensington and Fairhill neighborhoods, and has organized a wealth of events and resources to meet critical needs on those blocks. This year Jackie worked with the We CAN team to build relationships with block leaders, assess food insecurity on each block, and provide fresh produce and pantry staples at bi-weekly block drops or pop-ups.
We are focusing Nourish promotion on We CAN target blocks this fall to continue to strengthen the connection between healthy food, nutrition, and community in Kensington and Fairhill. “These are all aspects of Sunday Suppers that live on through the Nourish program,” Jackie says.
Residents can sign up on an online form, which is also accessible through a new text message service by texting “NKCDCnourish” to 833-901-2072. Please sign up if you or someone you know would benefit from the Nourish program, or email jsaez@nkcdc.org if you would like to help pack and deliver food kits!
NEW SNAP-ED FUNDING
Second, NKCDC is expanding our health and wellness offerings with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) programming beginning this fall. Kensington-based food assistance programs, retail stores, and community groups will partner to bring nutrition education to our neighbors. “This is a perfect example of how dollars from individual donors can leverage major support,” Dr. Bill McKinney, Executive Director of NKCDC said. “Donor support of Sunday Suppers and its commitment to this community has helped NKCDC become one of the few community development corporations in the country providing SNAP-Ed programming.”
MEETING WITH THE GOVERNOR
Finally, we wanted to report a bit of good news that is not specifically connected to Nourish, but bodes well for all of NKCDC’s work and the residents we serve: In October, we got a visit from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Senator Nikil Saval, and Senator Christine Tartaglione. The scheduled half-hour meeting expanded to over an hour as NKCDC Executive Director Dr. Bill McKinney presented ideas compiled from a number of different partners and stakeholders across the community. Both senators pledged resources for some of our projects, and the governor appointed one of his top aides to be our ongoing contact person within his administration. NKCDC and our partners look forward to continuing a productive relationship that benefits this community and all its residents.
Thank you for your support as we improve access to healthy, nutritious food in the Kensington, Fairhill and Juniata neighborhoods of Philadelphia. We hope you continue to see Nourish and health content on NKCDC’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. We encourage you to follow NKCDC and like and share the posts you find there. NKCDC publishes several e-newsletters on different topics, and you can sign up for those here. We will be phasing out updates from this account in early 2022.
If you have any questions about NKCDC or the Nourish program, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Bea J.E. Rider
Director of Resource Development and Communications
NKCDC