Training center at food bank to offer self-sustaining lessons
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Heidi Hoffman, the donor relations coordinator for the Greater Washington County Food Bank stands in the Healthy Habits Training Center, where classes will be offered to teach community members and food bank beneficiaries how to cook healthy meals.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
A grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation paid for supplies and staff for the Greater Washington County Food Bank to offer community education through the Healthy Habits Training Center, where food bank beneficiaries and community residents can take cooking classes.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
A grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation paid for supplies and staff for the Greater Washington County Food Bank to offer community education through the Healthy Habits Training Center, where Food Bank beneficiaries and community residents can take cooking classes.
The Greater Washington County Food Bank makes it a priority to ensure those who are in need are fed, but the addition of a new program will also offer needy residents a chance to make positive lifestyle changes.
“With the Healthy Habits Training Center, our goal is to empower the needy,” said Heidi Hoffman, donor relations coordinator for the Greater Washington County Food Bank. “By learning how to cook, budget and garden, they will be more self-sustaining.”
The center now features a residential training kitchen, constructed in what was the deli of a market housed in a Centerville warehouse along National Pike Road, where the food bank relocated last year. Officials at the food bank said the classes should be up and running by the beginning of the new year.
Initial classes will include gardening with soil preparation, basic nutrition, portion sizes and healthy alternatives to common foods. Classes in finance, resume building and interview tips are also being developed, Hoffman said.
According to Hoffman, the center will provide the opportunity to teach those in need about healthy foods they may not have eaten or prepared before.
“A lot of people will look at a butternut squash and say, ‘What do I do with this?'” Hoffman said. “It’s a healthy alternative. We want to teach people how to use or prepare this way.”
Hoffman said canning classes are being eyed to teach clients how to preserve fresh fruits received in distributions.
“The goal is to bring people in for cooking classes and training classes to be more well-round individuals,” Hoffman said.
She said individuals and households need help from the food bank for a variety of reasons, such as loss a spouse, change in income, loss of a job or sudden illness.
“These are some of the challenges our clients face,” Hoffman said. “We want to develop the resources that foster self-sufficiency. We want to teach anyone the things that will help should something like that happen.”
The training center utilizes the state’s Neighborhood Assistance Tax Credit Program. Recently, the food bank received a $50,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation to support cooking classes and nutritional education at the food bank.
Karen Kallam, market manager for Wal-Mart, said the corporation focuses on community needs with such grants.
“We want to support the community, and one of the best ways is through food banks because that supports so many people,” Kallam said.
The grant will be used to purchase tables and chairs and a podium with a sound system for use during training courses, Hoffman said.
The funding will also help defray the training center director’s salary and a garden, which is being developed on 22 acres behind the warehouse.
Hoffman said an advisory board has been created to oversee development of the garden. Additionally, Hoffman said some of the funds will be used for a new cooler and freezer.
Hoffman said food bank officials envision program expansions in the future, including diabetes and parenting education classes. Currently, community agencies such as Pathways and Lifesteps, a program that provides life skill education to those with intellectual disadvantages, operates out of the center, as does the WIC program.
Hoffman said the new classes for the Healthy Habits program will be offered to current clients as well as those in the public interested in learning more.
“We want to open windows of personal and professional opportunities,” she said. “We want to train our clients with skills to improve their means of self-sufficiency and healthy lifestyles.”