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On May 7-9, 2013, more than 170 Food & Community grantees are gathering in KANSAS CITY, Mo. for the Food & Community Grantee and Partners meeting. Attendees will spend several days exploring ways to build equity and sustain impact in their work to ensure that all children, families and communities have equitable access to good food and opportunities for physical activity.
Follow conversations from the Food & Community Grantee and Partners Meeting at #fandc13 [link: www.twitter.com/#fandc13] on Twitter.
Food & Community is a signature program within Food, Health & Well-Being. Through Food & Community, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is addressing the root causes of health inequities so that all children have the opportunity to thrive in school, work and life. The foundation’s approach involves four strategies:
• Transform Early Food. Access to good food is especially important for the health of mothers, mothers to be, infants and children. Food & Community recognizes that early childhood is a critical stage of child development, when nutritional needs are high and eating behaviors and attitudes about food are formed. Early childcare centers and education centers and family care providers therefore play a primary role in influencing the food choices and well-being of vulnerable children.
• Transform School Food Systems. Schools are the public tables from which 30 million children eat up to two-thirds of their meals. Transforming school food systems will directly impact children’s health and well-being. Through the Food & Community program, we aim to connect schools with local farms, and encourage school food directors, food service companies, producers and distributors to work together to change the way we feed children in schools.
• Improve Access to Community Food and Physical Activity. Communities hold the key to improving access to good food and active living. The Food & Community program helps build value-based, local food systems; improves access to good food in low-income communities and encourages the redesign of built environments to support physical activity.
• Shape a National Movement. Connections between local and national efforts will drive sustainable change to improve food systems and physical activity environments so that all children thrive. WKKF helps foster collaboration among diverse partners, strengthen the capacity of national advocacy groups and amplify the issues.