Healthy Futures for All

Children and seniors are among our most vulnerable citizens—too often lacking in regular access to the healthy foods needed to live healthy lives.

Working with local partners, this one-year pilot project is working to increase healthy food access in Detroit. This includes growing awareness of the Double Up Food Bucks SNAP incentive program among the city’s students and families, while also getting more farm fresh foods to homebound seniors.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Healthy Futures for All is also growing understanding of how to prepare fresh, healthy food. With our partners, we are providing nutrition education to students and families, and pairing the senior food delivery with preparation, nutrition, and cooking tips that feature seasonal foods.

We are taking a deep-dive approach in four Detroit Schools, providing skills-based trainings plus community events that bring together parents, grandparents, and community members. Additional offsite student programming includes field trips to farms, farm stands, and cooking clubs. Beyond these four schools, general educational materials will be developed in partnership with the Michigan Fitness Foundation and distributed through partners’ networks across Southeast Michigan.

Our vision?

A virtuous cycle where young people share what they learn with parents and grandparents. Where our elders have the nutritious foods and support they need and deserve. And where the local food system is activated to support all Detroit residents.

Our hope is that this work can also inform others on how to link local food access with nutrition education and community engagement.

This is a collaborative project with FoodCorps, a national nonprofit that connects kids to healthy food in schools, and its Detroit sites; Detroit Public Schools Community District Office of School Nutrition; Wayne State University Center for Health & Community Impact; and the Michigan Fitness Foundation.

This work is supported by Healthy Food Connect, a two-year regional initiative of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Michigan Health Endowment Fund that seeks to improve health of children and seniors throughout the southeast Michigan.