National Nutrition Month Spotlight: Partnership for Children of Wayne County Makes an Impact On Child Care Food Purchasing
Early health and development support is critical towards ensuring children grow into healthy adults. In celebration of National Nutrition Month, Smart Start is celebrating the work of Local Partnerships in promoting healthy eating, increasing healthy behavior patterns, and advancing food security.
Food insecurity is a critical issue in North Carolina with one in six children facing hunger. To address this problem, four Smart Start Local Partnerships, have partnered with the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) as part of a grant from the U.S Department of Agriculture to explore local food procurement. The goal of the CEFS partnership is to strengthen the viability and resilience of regional food economies.
Explore what’s happening in Wayne County by reading the message below from Valerie Wallace, executive director of the Partnership for Children of Wayne County.
The Partnership for Children of Wayne County is pleased to continue the work in Farm to Early Care and Education for the 2022-2023 programming year. The focal point for this collaboration is local food purchasing, which continues to build upon successes of previous partnerships in the Farm to ECE model.
Preparing to make a difference
Prior years of the Farm to ECE collaborative focused on enhancing and improving the health of children through educational activities and practices that helped children form a connection between locally grown foods to their plates. This year’s model expands upon decreasing local food purchasing challenges in Wayne County. The Partnership for Children, Cooperative Extension of Wayne County and four Head Start and Early Head Start facilities in Wayne County: WAGES Belfast, WAGES Bryan Sutton Child Development Center, WAGES Buck Swamp, and WAGES Royall Avenue joined together to make a difference.
Feedback from WAGES was extremely positive, with the children and staff thoroughly enjoying the order—even sweet potatoes and red cabbage.
Laying the Groundwork to Change
The early months of the collaborative included identifying participating sites and processes related to the behind the scenes preparation, ordering, and fine details that not only met local sanitation requirements, but also federal requirements and regulations as they relate to food consumption and preparation. An intern worked with the WAGES kitchen staff to form a collaborative relationship. From there, our team participated in discussions, self-assessments, and visits to determine specific needs of individual facilities. After needs were identified, goals were set, and technical assistance was provided to child care sites. A plan was made to procure fresh vegetables through an arrangement with a vendor participating in the collaborative. Feedback from WAGES was extremely positive, with the children and staff thoroughly enjoying the order—even sweet potatoes and red cabbage.
Participating staff received support on local food purchasing, gardening, cooking, and racial equity, all of which help the educators develop an understanding of the importance of the role of local food purchasing and how this can directly impact the children and families we serve.
Making an Impact
Currently, Wayne County Cooperative Extension Agent, Michelle Estrada, is working with two of the four participating facilities in the implementation of “Color Me Healthy”, a program developed to reach children with fun, interactive learning opportunities as they relate to physical activity and healthy eating. The children loved the foods – many of which had never been tried. They even tried yellow squash, carrots, celery, tomatoes – without dip! Facilities have shared that the children have developed quite the interest in “farming”, although they haven’t quite developed their “green thumbs.”
They even tried yellow squash, carrots, celery, tomatoes – without dip!
Overall, the Farm to ECE experience has been successful, with continuous room for growth. We look forward to seeing what the participating programs will accomplish and how we can expand into other child cares in our community.
