Overview:
The Nutrition Committee works to provide the unhoused populations in St. Louis with a tangible way to access healthier food options, deliver nutritious donations to shelters, and work with community partners and organizations to assist in the ongoing fight against local food insecurity. Many preventable diseases, including heart failure and obesity-related conditions, are often exacerbated by poor diet and lack of nutritional intake. However, through small but meaningful contributions inspired by community need, we are able to help alleviate the burden of hunger and malnutrition for unhoused individuals.
In the past few years, our efforts have focused on preparing snack packs to deliver directly to shelters, and compiling guides to distribute information about resources. In previous school years, we’ve assembled hundreds snack packs with nutritional snack items and donated them to Unhoused STL, Peter & Paul Community Services, and St. Patrick’s Center. To continue this effort, we have received numerous grants from local supermarkets, which will help us donate more food to shelters. Activities of past years have included curating spreadsheets of local food pantries and banks with updated COVID-19 information, booklets about the Missouri Food Stamp Program and the application process, and a cookbook with simple nutritious recipes.
Q&A:
What sort of events does the nutrition project organize?
In the past we’ve frequently carried out snack packing events during GBMs as an opportunity to allow all members of HU to assemble food items to be distributed into the community. We’ve also organized various events with the St. Louis Area Foodbank in addition to curating remote resources such as cookbooks and guides to educate individuals on how to incorporate nutritional changes in their daily lives.
Who are the nutrition project’s favorite community partner(s) to work with?
An important part of the Nutrition Committee is working with our community parters to help us distribute food into the community. In the past some of our favorite community parters have been Unhoused STL, Peter & Paul Community Services, and St. Patrick’s Center.
What are some goals that the nutrition project has for the upcoming semester?
This semester we plan to continue getting our members involved in making snack packs and continuing to work with parters such as the St. Louis Area Foodbank. Additionally, we plan on furthering our engagement with our community by having our first neighborhood-wide food drive outside of campus.
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