Blog NKCDC Nourish is really cooking now 

A little over a year ago, a ten-year-old nonprofit called Sunday Suppers joined NKCDC as Nourish, a healthy food and nutrition education program for Kensington, Juniata and Fairhill, Philadelphia.

Merging the two organizations has made a busy kitchen, but a very fun one!

  • Within months, in part because of the strength of private support for Nourish from Sunday Suppers donors, we secured SNAP-Ed nutrition education funding.
    
  • In 2021, Nourish supported 120 families with free groceries, including fresh produce, in collaboration with We CAN, a community based crime reduction initiative.
    
  • The team recently wrapped up eight weeks of weekly online and in-person cooking demonstrations from the community kitchen at NKCDC’s Orinoka Civic House apartments (see photos below).
    
  • They used a SNAP-Ed curriculum, “Just Say Yes to Fruits and Vegetables,” to lead free nutrition classes at the Community Center at Visitation and are working with NKCDC’s Community Health Workers on diabetes prevention class there on Thursdays.
Nutrition and exercise! Nourish and NKCDC’s resident services department collaborated for the final class of a Nourish course held at Orinoka Civic House. All Orinoka residents were invited. Class participants got a chance to show off what they learned by making healthy side dishes. The class focused on physical activity, with NKCDC’s community engagement director, Katsí Miranda-Lozada, lead salsa lessons.

New staff, new initiatives

Nourish and SNAP-Ed staff has grown to five people, pictured below: program manager Jackie Saez, nutrition educator Morgan Rust, community health specialist Sonya Carroll, and SNAP-Ed community health workers Mark McAden and Antonia Villafane.

Nourish and SNAP-Ed provide fresh food, recipes, nutrition information and other nutrition-related resources at pop-up distribution sites coordinated by local residents. We are connecting local food pantries to fresh produce from local growers and grocers, and providing pantry customers with a shopping list, recipes and instructions for using pantry items to make nutritious meals. 

And we are supporting small food businesses. Using ingredients found in local mini markets and corner stores, Nourish aims to show residents that healthy meals are not hard to make with the resources they have right in their own community. This Fall we will partner with corner store owners to build healthy recipes stores can share with shoppers.

NKCDC believes that accessing, preparing and eating nourishing meals should be accessible to people of all social and economic backgrounds. By providing the resources and skills that people need to create nourishing meals at home, individuals and families can eat healthier, feel healthier, gain greater confidence in their cooking abilities and achieve a greater sense of control over their health and wellbeing. The goal is to create good food habits with long-term health benefits. 

Nourish is (in reading order): Sonya Carroll, Community Health Specialist; Mark McAden, SNAP-Ed Community Health Worker; Morgan Rust, Nutrition Educator; Jackie Saez, Program Manager; and Antonia Villafane, SNAP-Ed Community Health Worker


Stay in touch with Nourish!

Since Sunday Suppers joined NKCDC more than a year ago, we are getting ready to close the Sunday Suppers email list and wind down the Sunday Suppers social media accounts, but fans can still follow the good work of Nourish on NKCDC’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn

We encourage you to support the work of Nourish as it grows into new opportunities at NKCDC. Visit nkcdc.org/nourish to learn how. And if you know someone interested in cooking new recipes and learning about nutrition, tell them to text NKCDCnourish to 833-901-2072.

Thank you for your support as we continue expand our services in Kensington!

Support the work of Nourish as it grows into new opportunities at NKCDC. 

Donate Here