What We Do
Food insecurity is about providing enough food to those in need. Nutrition insecurity is about providing the right food to prevent or alleviate diet-related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and obesity. With studies showing that diet-related diseases like diabetes and obesity are driving the highest hospitalization and death rates from COVID-19, it is now more important than ever to address nutrition insecurity head-on.
Wholesome Wave has partnered since 2007 with Community-Based Organizations, in the places they call home, by bringing powerful concepts and seed funding to co-design program approaches that work best for their community. Program concepts are designed to raise and re-invest private funding to demonstrate what might happen if public funding was used more effectively.
Our program concepts are designed to raise and re-invest private funding to demonstrate what might happen if public funding was used more effectively.
In communities that struggle with low-income and nutrition insecurity from Appalachia, to South LA, to Rural Maine, to the West Side of Chicago, to the Navajo Nation, poverty and nutrition insecurity are the only things they have in common. How poverty and nutrition insecurity look and feel is very different from community to community.
Wholesome Wave does not believe in setting up shop in the place someone else calls home to bring “our solutions” to “their problems.” That’s why we rely on talented Community-Based Organizations that are dedicated to solving the nutrition insecurity suffered by low-income community members in the places they both call home.
What Is Nutrition Insecurity?
Millions of Americans can’t afford to eat healthy food. They have no choice but to stretch their weekly paycheck by buying inexpensive, highly processed, nutritionally depleted foods for themselves and their families – increasing their risk of developing life-threatening diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Adding fresh fruits and vegetables to an incomplete meal is proven to provide the nutrition needed to help prevent and manage these diseases.
National Produce Prescription Collaborative
Convened and led by Wholesome Wave, the National Produce Prescription Collaborative (NPPC) was co-founded in spring of 2019 by Wholesome Wave, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, DC Greens, Reinvestment Partners, and a number of other devoted organizations to catalyze the vital role of food and nutrition in improving health and wellness.Through the important work of federal and state policy working groups, a grassroots taskforce, and steering committee leadership, the NPPC continues working to embed and institutionalize produce prescriptions (PRx) into standard healthcare practice.
To visit the National Produce Prescription Collaborative click here.
Food4Moms, a three-year Produce Prescription (PRx) Program created by Wholesome Wave, aims to comprehensively assess the feasibility, and measure the impact of a PRx program tailored specifically for women who are pregnant, Latina and low-income in Hartford, Connecticut. Food4Moms follows a unique co-design iterative approach that integrates the principles of Fidelity, Equity and Dignity (FED) throughout the program.
For more information click here.
