Mini-Grant Recipient Success Stories: Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of Palm Beach County, Inc.
In 2017-2018 Healthy Mothers, Healthy babies of Palm Beach County Inc. was awarded a Healthier Jupiter Mini-Grant to expand their Small Steps Great Parents educational workshop series curriculum by hosting nutrition workshops titled "Healthy Cooking Series" in the Jupiter area. They were able to partner and host the workshops at El Sol, Jupiter’s Neighborhood Resource Center.
Workshop participants had the opportunity to hands on participate in cooking along with sampling healthy recipes. Including participants in the cooking and sampling allowed for the residents to be well educated in making healthier lifestyle changes and eliminate fear of trying new food options.
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of Palm Beach County, Inc. shared with us some of their challenges…”the biggest challenge we experienced was to gain the trust and participation of the community. In the beginning of the cooking series we established the workshop time without the consulting the community.
We quickly learned due to low participation that our established workshop time was not a feasible time for the community to take advantage of the workshops. We quickly modified workshop time after receiving community feedback which turned out to be successful.
Another challenge was since we had to move the time we were not able to use utilize the kitchen at El Sol as we originally planned. We adapted and due to our Chef Lydia she was able to facilitate the workshops with cooking in a contemporary classroom within El Sol”
We are so impressed by how Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies learned and adapted to best serve the Jupiter community! They also shared this great story about one of their participants…
“Workshop participant from HMHB Cooking Series, Bertha Velasquez who never missed a class said “I always enjoyed the classes and I’m so amazed how we can get creative with our food and eat healthy”. She invited her friends to be part of the workshops she said “because I want them to be educated about what they eat.” Bertha also referred an expectant mom to our services and always goes above and beyond to make sure she spreads the word about our cooking series. Bertha received a present on the last day of the class to show that we appreciate her and we can say that she is an HMHB advocate in Jupiter”.
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of Palm beach County’s Small Steps Grant Parents: Nutrition and Diabetes Prevention Workshop for Pregnant women met Healthier Jupiter’s focus to increase availability and affordability of fresh, healthy foods.
About Healthier Jupiter’s 2019-2020 Mini-Grant Program
Healthier Jupiter, a community initiative founded to address health and quality of life issues, for the fourth year in a row, Healthier Jupiter will offer Mini Grants to impact the health of our community. The goal of the Mini Grants is to fund innovative projects that have measurable impact and can create meaningful, transformative change in the health, wellness and success of the greater Jupiter community. The grants will allow civic organizations, churches, temples, schools, government entities and nonprofits to fund pilot ideas to improve our collective community health in one of four focus areas:
Increase the availability and affordability of fresh, healthy foods;
Help individuals become more physically active on a regular basis;
Encourage people to engage mentally and physically to practice healthy behaviors; and/or
Support changes in the built environment and community policies that promote equitable opportunities for healthy living.
For more information about Healthier Jupiter’s Mini-Grant Program please visit healthierjupiter.org/grants. Here you can learn about past recipients, get some great inspiration from innovative ideas from around the country, and submit an interest form (which is required to submit a grant).
Healthier Jupiter is funded through a generous grant from Palm Health Foundation in partnership with Jupiter Medical Center, as part of the countywide Healthier Together Initiative.