DENVER - A push by Walmart to get healthier foods on its store shelves is being praised by a Colorado organization. "Cooking Matters" helps low-income Coloradans learn how to avoid high-fat, high-sugar, high-sodium products by making their own meals.
Ruth Stemler, Colorado director of the Share our Strength "Cooking Matters" program, says 6,000 families statewide took the course last year. Their program teaches people how to understand food labels and find the best products at the lowest cost and then transform those ingredients into a healthy meal.
"What families lack, many times, is those quick tips that they need to actually prepare a healthy meal, a low-cost meal, and a meal that doesn't take hours of preparation time."
Walmart announced Thursday it will be cutting unhealthy fats, sugars and salts from thousands of its house-branded products - and encourage its suppliers, like Kraft, to do the same on their products. The company also plans to cut prices on fresh fruits and vegetables.
Stemler says a corporation like Walmart - with huge purchasing power - can make a real impact on the marketplace.
"Many of our families do have a very limited budget, and they do need to shop at the very lowest-cost grocery store. This will help our work as we teach them how to shop for healthy choices."
Stemler says over "Cooking Matters'" 16-year-history in Colorado, they've documented lasting changes in the eating behavior - and health - of participants.
"We teach families very practical, hands-on skills that they can use at the grocery store to empower them to make those healthy choices."
The "Cooking Matters" program is available in 27 counties across the state in both rural and urban communities.
More information on "Cooking Matters" is available at http://cookingmatters.org/cooking-matters-colorado/.
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Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer.
Federal officials have approved the Badger State's plan to join a new program that includes dozens of other states. Gov. Tony Evers has said Wisconsin is the first state to get the green light for the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program, and 36 other states are poised to launch this summer. Eligible households will receive pre-loaded debit cards that families can use to buy groceries.
Shelly Fortner, executive director of The Hunger Task Force of La Crosse applauded the move, noting that half of kids in the local school district already qualify for free and reduced-price lunches during school.
"We've got families with low incomes - most of them working, by the way - but just not able to put that extra meal on the table for kids who are home during the summer months," she said.
This new permanent program, authorized by Congress, is similar to the enhanced meal access the federal government provided during the pandemic. Throughout Wisconsin, there are separate meal sites for these kids when school isn't in session, but supporters of the new effort say it provides more flexibility, especially for households with limited transportation options.
State officials have pointed out that most families already enrolled in the National School Lunch Program will automatically receive the summer benefits.
Fortner said meal access aids kids in their learning. For the summer, she said, the additional access will keep them active.
"We've had a lot of information about sedentary activities like video games and TV and all of that," he said, "but our kids are now getting outdoors more, and they need to have that energy to be able to keep that up."
She added that this should help foster healthy lifelong habits for kids and prevent them from starting the next school year feeling sluggish. For each eligible child, the state will provide a one-time summer benefit of $120. It's anticipated the money will be available in late June.
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Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online tool could help more school districts participate.
The effort is a key component of the Healthy School Meals for All initiative approved by voters in 2022.
Taylor Frederick - culinary programs manager with Nourish Colorado - said over the past couple of years, school meal operators have identified best practices that can be adopted by other school districts, including how to work with local farms and ranches.
"How you can find your local producer," said Frederick, "and even how to put out specific bids for specific local items, and how to work these sorts of things into your menus."
The new Colorado Local Food Program Guidebook, available online at 'guidebook.nourishcolorado.org,' offers tips and tools for launching and sustaining farm-to-school programs.
The guide also offers ways for parents and community members to engage with their local school district, to encourage them to opt into the voluntary program or make menu recommendations.
Frederick explained that the guide begins with a short quiz that helps direct users to the right resources.
For example, food producers who want to sell their produce to reliable kiddo customers can learn how school district cafeterias operate and purchase food.
"To better understand the school market channels," said Frederick, "the bid process, the price points that school districts are working with, their timing, and a little bit about their menus and products that they are looking for."
He said school meal operators can also get tips on how to transition from serving canned and processed foods to preparing meals with fresh ingredients through a series of training videos.
"Some different types of kitchen equipment that might be in the schools, we have training videos on those," said Frederick. "Some vegetable cookery techniques. Those were the big things that school districts and school meal authorities were really saying that they wanted."
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During National Nutrition Month, groups like Virginia Fresh Match are providing people with healthy fresh food options.
Since 2009, the coalition of farmer's markets and mobile food stores has been helping people on SNAP or EBT get access to healthier foods. Some groups have found almost 24% of the benefits are used for healthy foods, while more often they are spent on sugary snacks, premade foods, and meats.
Elizabeth Borst, director of advocacy for Virginia Fresh Match, said everyone should have the opportunity to access healthy foods.
"Just making sure that people both have access to high-quality food and that quality food is affordable to them," Borst explained. "Fresh fruits and vegetables can often be the last thing that people will choose when they are on a really limited budget, so we want to make sure that is accessible to people."
The Consumer Price Index showed food prices drastically increased between 2022 and 2023, but prices have slightly declined in 2024.
Food insecurity has been a long-standing issue for Virginians. Hunger Free America's 2023 Annual Hunger Survey found almost 774,000 people in Virginia are food insecure. Borst emphasized her group is focusing on its "food is medicine" work to ensure no one goes hungry.
While Virginia Fresh Match has been able to accomplish a lot during its multiyear history, there have been some challenges. Borst observed one long-term challenge has been funding sustainability. Like the rest of the world, the pandemic presented a significant hurdle for them, though it created some interesting changes.
"We just had a huge bump in our redemptions and usage of the program," Borst stressed. "That really didn't taper off even though there's been a 40% decrease in SNAP benefit allotments once the pandemic emergency benefits ended."
Emergency allotments provided all SNAP recipients with an additional $95 per month, affecting 470,000 families across the state.
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