Proposal: Nutrition Education Outreach Project

Robert Sondak

Describe your project.
NEOP is a Massachusetts-based non-profit that teaches low-income and working families how to plan healthy meals incorporating the five major foods groups. In Cambridge we serve a 5,500 person client population. Boston is second with 3,000 households followed by Somerville with 500 households. NEOP operates a two-tier program circulating recipe flyers which highlight nutrition education guides in English, Spanish, and French. We also conduct cooking demonstrations and seminars on appropriate nutrition.

For this project we want to conduct cooking demonstrations and seminars citywide in Cambridge. We will provide in-depth training for women, children and others demonstrating the importance of protein and carbohydrates. These demonstrations and seminars provide training to help people understand the concepts of protein combining and carbohydrate meal planning. Feast Mass funding would help us to jump-start this program, get local Cambridge people involved, and show them how to make improvements in their daily health a reality.

How will you use the grant to make your idea happen?
The Feast Mass grant would allow us to pay for organic produce and fruits, cooking herbs and cooking oils for our presentations.

Why and to whom is your project important?
This grant will allow us to engage the Cambridge community to support our work, familiarize people with the farmers markets and the work of local hunger relief organizations, and introduce the concept of buying locally grown foods to our workshop participants.

If you win, what is the expected status of your project by the time the next Feast Mass rolls around in 3–4 months?
I will establish new partnerships with local food organizations, create a strategic plan to engage community and faith-based organizations, and complete our efforts to find additional funding. By the time of the next Feast Mass, I hope to complete development of a cooking demonstration program with the Harvest Food Pantry located at the Cabridgeport Baptist Church and a culinary program preparing our recipes at Feeding the Hungry community meals program located at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church and continue to look for other community groups to partner with.