The Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) in partnership with emergency food relief organizations (EFROs) is dedicated to improving the health and nutrition status of people in need of food assistance in NYS. The program accomplishes this by providing funding and other support to enhance the accessibility and availability of safe and nutritious food and food related resources, as well as develop and provide comprehensive nutrition and health education programs.
The Chautauqua County Rural Ministry is a direct contractor with HPNAP. Through their support and the support of the United Way of Northern Chautauqua County and Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, CCRM over the past five years has been able to establish a well rooted gleaning and food recovery program. Two years ago, due to the large amount of gleaned produce and the need to address childhood obesity, diabetes and healthy food choices, CCRM implemented monthly Cooking and Nutrition Workshops.
HPNAP will be holding its annual conference in November and Rural Ministry will be receiving The Best Practice Award. This honor is given to an agency in NYS that utilizes best practices involving food and nutrition.
"How fortunate we are that HPNAP encourages us to invest our grant money locally - at farmers markets or with CSAs, when cost-responsible. This doesn't just 'support the local economy' in a theoretical sense, it also strengthens our relationships with local farmers during our 'Local Farmers, Local Foods' series this summer which resulted in more produce donations from those farmer; the links between these farmers and our clients that we didn't expect," Sarah Sorci, gleaning project coordinator, said.
