HARRIS COUNTY Announces $550K In Grants To Combat Food Insecurity
Style Magazine Newswire | 3/12/2021, 12:09 p.m.
Healthy, fresh food should be affordable and accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many Harris County residents. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 738,140 people in Harris County were considered food insecure, and at least 286,000 live in a food desert. As of January 2021, there are 360,000 children in Harris County experiencing food insecurity.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Harris County, many of them children, do not have access to fresh and nutritious food, either because they cannot afford it or they live in one of our county’s many food deserts,” said Harris County Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis. “Particularly at a time when many residents are experiencing hardship, it is a privilege to invest in our residents health and wellbeing, and expand access to healthy food to more communities. Through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, the County is supporting the work of local organizations helping to meet residents’ basic needs.”
Commissioner Ellis first proposed the Harris County Healthy Food Financing Initative to increase the availability of fresh and nutritious food in underserved communities by funding innovative solutions through community partners. The first round of the Healthy Food Financing Initative will provide $550,000 in grants to the HOPE Clinic, Houston Food Bank, Little Red Box, Small Places, Common Market Texas, and Urban Harvest.
· The grantee organizations will:
o HOPE Clinic: Teach restauranteurs to prepare healthy food for their menus
o Houston Food Bank: Increase food pantry capacity and SNAP enrollment
Little Red Box: Make healthy food available for pick-up in the Second Ward
o Finca Tres Robles: Host inter- active classes and create an outlet for fresh produce with a store and kitchen in the East End
CommonMarketTexas:Provide healthy food at a 25% discount to food retailers
www.TheCommonMarket.org/ Locations/Texas
Urban Harvest: Support opera- tions of its mobile market and co- ordinate healthy food access efforts among community organizations
“Under its healthy community initiative, HOPE Clinic established the Bite of HOPE – a teaching kitchen and culinary program whose objective is to change the food environment in Hous- ton, specifically in the neighborhoods that lack adequate healthy food access. As a Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) awardee, the program will help small food businesses and restaurants create healthier menu and product options by having the healthy culinary coach review the food elaboration pro- cess, connecting them to local farms and sourcing outlets, lowering costs, and promoting them within the community,” said Joseph Brozovich, Culinary Pro- gram Coordinator & Lead Instructor of a Bite of HOPE.
“On behalf of Houston Food Bank, we are so grateful and excited to start working with our partners on HFB’s new Targeted Enhanced Part- ner Capacity Project,” said Kristen House, Houston Food Bank Partner Capacity Manager. “The project will address the limited access to healthy food and increase nutrition education resources in underserved communities in Precinct 1.”
“This would not be possible without the passage of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, and thank you Commissioner Rodney Ellis for spear- heading this effort and all of the Harris County Commissioner’s Court for their support,” said Melanie Pang, Houston Food Bank Director of Advocacy.
Samuel Newman, Founder of the Little Red Box Grocery, said “In Texas, and across the United States, rapidly densifying and gentrifying cit- ies are pushing lower-income residents away from basic resources, making it harder for families to access essential necessities including fresh, healthy food. Little Red Box Grocery (LRB) is a socially-conscious private venture that is building a market based and scalable solution to eradicate food deserts. LRB’s mission is to Democratize Access to Good Food.
“We are extremely excited and proud to be a part of Harris County’s first Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI),” said Thomas Garcia-Prats, Founder and General Manager of Finca Tres Robles. “Small Places has worked the last seven years through our urban farm, Finca Tres Robles, to grow and provide access to the freshest organic produce to our community with the pandemic only revealing an even greater need.
