Diet Month in Center Tennessee is a time to deal with a easy, but highly effective fact: the meals on our plates is the muse of our well being. At Second Harvest Meals Financial institution of Center Tennessee, we see each day how entry to nutritious meals can change lives.
Starvation is not only about empty stomachs. It’s deeply linked to well being outcomes.
Households going through meals insecurity usually tend to expertise persistent situations like diabetes, coronary heart illness, and hypertension. When nutritious meals is out of attain, managing these situations turns into even more durable.
That’s the reason the intersection of starvation and well being is on the coronary heart of our work.
The Connection Between Starvation and Well being
Meals insecurity typically forces households to make unattainable decisions. When budgets are tight, lower-cost, shelf-stable meals might really feel like the one choice. Whereas these meals usually are not inherently unhealthy, it may be exhausting to construct a balanced weight-reduction plan with out constant entry to contemporary produce, lean proteins, and entire grains.
Throughout Diet Month in Center Tennessee, we spotlight the truth that wholesome meals is just not a luxurious. It’s important.
Nutritious meals gasoline kids to allow them to be taught. They assist older adults handle drugs and preserve energy. They permit working mother and father to remain centered and productive.
Recent Produce and Balanced Meals
Second Harvest works carefully with farmers, retailers, and meals donors to prioritize contemporary produce and nutrient-dense meals throughout our 46-county service space. Vegatables and fruits are among the most requested and most distributed objects in our community.
Final 12 months, we distributed over 16 million kilos of contemporary produce. Which means greater than 30% of all of the meals we distributed final 12 months have been contemporary vegetables and fruit.
Second Harvest’s nutritious choices don’t cease there.
Second Harvest additionally presents meals tailor-made to particular well being wants, resembling diabetic pleasant tray-packs, low sodium meals bins, and extra.
Meals Is Drugs in Motion
Our Meals Is Drugs initiative takes this work even additional. Via co-creation with healthcare companions, we combine nutritious meals into care plans for sufferers managing persistent sickness. As an alternative of treating signs alone, we handle one of many root causes: lack of entry to wholesome meals.
This contains medically tailor-made meals bins, diet training led by registered dietitians, and care coordination that connects neighbors to extra assist.
Meals Is Drugs acknowledges what we have now lengthy recognized: healthcare doesn’t begin or cease on the hospital door.
Constructing a More healthy Center Tennessee
Diet Month in Center Tennessee is greater than a marketing campaign. It’s a reminder that nutritious meals is foundational to thriving communities.
After we put money into contemporary produce, kids’s feeding packages, Cellular Pantries, and Meals Is Drugs partnerships, we aren’t solely combating starvation. We’re serving to break the cycle between meals insecurity and persistent illness.
