County gives $30K in grants to healthy food projects - mlive.com

YPSILANTI, MI -- The farm that Amanda Sweetman runs isn’t on a huge plot of land in the countryside. It’s right next to St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital.

The Farm at St. Joe’s is one of three community programs that received $30,000 collectively in grants for projects about access to and consumption of healthy foods, according to a news release from the Washtenaw County Health Department.

The farm received $15,000 to build a new hoop house, similar to a greenhouse, for growing plants from seeds to seedlings, to “increase our ability to grow year-round," Sweetman, the regional director of farming and healthy lifestyles for Trinity Michigan, said.

“You can think of it as the hospital’s commitment to caring for the whole of our community,” Sweetman said. “Not just when you come through our doors but making sure that we’re joining you on your path toward better health.”

The approximately 2.5-acre space grows anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of produce each year for horticulture therapy, a weekly hospital farmer’s market in the lobby of St. Joe’s Ann Arbor and “produce to patient” programs that give clinicians boxes of fruits and vegetables to use in things like diabetes support groups. It also grows produce for community-supported agriculture, a “subscription service” of produce, that families in need can get for free.

When the farm opened 10 years ago, it had a mission, Sweetman said.

“We’re trying to make it clear (on) our commitment to the idea of food as medicine, and that we care about you as a whole person not just your diagnosis,” Sweetman said.

The other grantees, Food Gatherers and Ypsilanti Farmers Markets, received $10,000 and $5,000 respectively, Health Department spokeswoman Susan Ringer-Cerniglia said. Thirteen organizations requested a collective $145,646 as part of the Building Healthy Communities program, a county program funded by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Food Gatherers gained this funding to improve food pantries by identifying programming with increased amounts and kinds of healthy food, according to the news release.

Ypsilanti Farmers Market, which is funded and staffed by Growing Hope, will use the grant to host a children’s club encouraging members to taste fresh produce, according to the news release. The Power of Produce Club is for ages 5 to 12 and will spend eight weeks exposing children to conversations with farmers, educational games and produce tasting.

“The program aims to expose children to new fruits and vegetables, empower them to make their own shopping decisions, and increase fruit and vegetable intake for the whole family,” according to the news release.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Ann Arbor transit CEO talks future: electric buses, service expansion

Ann Arbor sets goal to get 20% of drivers in EVs by 2030

A night at the Emoni Bates show

Ypsilanti office hours extended for presidential primary absentee ballots

Let's block ads! (Why?)