Partner Profile: North Newstead Association

Back in 2019, the fondly named “Garden Corral” was a weekly favorite among North Newstead Association (NNA) seniors.

After NNA held their elderly services workshops in the shady corner of Fresh Starts Community Garden, workshop attendees would gather around a table stacked with produce freshly picked from Urban Harvest STL farms, including the FOOD ROOF Farm, Kerr FOOD ROOF, and on-location at Fresh Starts. As seniors gathered around the Garden Corral of fresh produce, Farmer Drew from the UHSTL team would stick around to answer questions – “what can you do with a lemon cucumber?” – while they selected their favorite veggies.

Fresh Starts Community Garden, owned by NNA board member and UHSTL partner Rosie Willis, is a community hub where neighbors in the surrounding JeffVanderLou neighborhood come together to garden. Since 2017, UHSTL has been maintaining unclaimed beds in the garden and donating the majority of produce grown there to our community partners. In 2020 alone, UHSTL harvested 1,175 pounds of produce from the garden. 

This season, the lively post-workshop vegetable share had to be put on pause. However, with UHSTL farms still producing, NNA’s Community Engagement Specialist Constance Siu has found new ways to distribute produce.

Her first stop is to check in with a couple seniors she has on deck to receive produce weekly. These folks, who are over 65, are already more susceptible to severe symptoms of Covid-19, and one senior who relies on public transportation to reach the grocery store is at even higher risk if and when she leaves her home. Constance divvies up their shares and delivers it to them by the end of the day so that they don’t even need to leave the house.

Often, she gets much more produce than her seniors can handle. When this is the case, she’ll write up a mini “order form” of what’s left over and check in with her neighbors around their office in the O’Fallon neighborhood of North City – the tenants upstairs, the barber shop across the street, the folks at a nearby intersection. They fill out the form and she repackages and delivers their orders.

Sometimes, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to complete this process, so Constance will drop off extra produce at Bread of Life Church in Old North for their Free Food Wednesdays.

“They set up in front of the church with a whole line of food, but they rarely have fresh produce,” Constance explains. “Now, what I hear, is that people come early, and they’ll ask, ‘Where are the cucumbers!?’”

Sharing produce is just one branch of NNA’s many services. The two-woman team works in 21 different neighborhoods (primarily in North City) and collaborates with a wide range of community partners and nonprofits. Their range of services include affordable housing, beautification, neighborhood safety, landlord training and minor home repair.

Navigating the shift to virtual work has been tough, particularly because many of NNA’s services are in-person. Many individuals need to make hard decisions on how to engage – for example, balancing the risk of getting Covid with needing to have repairs done in their homes, especially before winter comes.

When it comes to Constance’s community engagement work, she has also shared the challenges of the technology gap, particularly when working with seniors or individuals without access to wifi. However, she remains optimistic.

“What I’ve learned in the last couple of months is that they are resilient and they’re willing to learn,” Constance says. “And they probably know Zoom better than most of us do by now!”

North Newstead Association brings community partners together to promote economic well being in the North Newstead Association geographic area by providing affordable housing and family support services to the areas low and moderate-income residents. Follow them on Facebook or get in touch at northnewsteadassociationstl@gmail.com.

To volunteer or get involved with Fresh Starts Community Garden, please reach out to Ms. Rosie Willis at 314.685.5183.

Partner Spotlight: The Fit and Food Connection

Five years ago, The Fit and Food Connection (FAFC) was born out of a shared passion for health, wellness, and equity.

Co-founders Joy Millner and Gabrielle (Gabi) Cole were hard at work in St. Louis’s underserved communities. Joy’s organization, Living Joyfully, offered free fitness and nutrition classes to local low-income neighborhoods, while Gabi’s – The Food Place – brought healthy food to North St. Louis communities where grocery stores were scarce. In 2015, they joined forces to co-found the FAFC, working with half a dozen families to provide a food access program and free weekly fitness classes.

In the following years, this grassroots program blossomed into a multifaceted wellness education, mentorship, and food pantry program serving 55 households. The FAFC empowers their clients to reach their health goals through a holistic approach that emphasizes healthy eating, physical fitness, and nutrition education. More importantly, all their programs are free.

GROWING FOOD LITERACY

FAFC reaches the community through two main program branches: food access and wellness. Their food access program incorporates food assistance and delivery, as well as an organic garden, while the wellness Program provides group fitness classes, group nutrition seminars, and customized one-on-one programs for their clients.

FAFC’s food assistance delivery program reaches residents in the region who suffer most acutely from food insecurity. Operating out of the Believer’s Temple in Ferguson, MO, a team of dedicated volunteers assembles every Sunday to sort and prepare donated food, which is delivered directly to clients’ homes by volunteer drivers.

“Many [clients] don’t have transportation; they’re on the lowest end of the financial spectrum,” explains Joy. “This includes single mothers, families, people with disabilities, the elderly – people across the board.”

Early on, Joy and Gabi recognized that food literacy was a critical component of healthy eating habits. For someone who is unfamiliar with a wide variety of produce, many greens – for example – might look similar but taste very different. This prompted FAFC to add cooking demonstrations and seminars to their programming.

“We talk about what goes best in salads or in soups. We do a lot of classes on food prepping - how to prepare food for the week, how to cook on a dime,” Joy explains. “We also put a lot of communication into the food deliveries we give out, such as recipes, nutrient information, what to do with the food.”

It was only a matter of time before FAFC and Urban Harvest STL found each other and a beautiful partnership began. Since 2017, Urban Harvest STL has provided a steady supply of seasonal produce for FAFC’s various programs. Beyond adding fresh produce to deliveries for food pantry clients, it’s also used for monthly cooking and nutrition classes and prepared in healthy snacks for well-attended “Health Hours” that combine fitness, stretching, de-stressing, and mindfulness.

COPING WITH COVID

The design of FAFC’s wellness and food delivery programs has made the organization resilient to the upheavals of the Covid-19 pandemic. While many pantries find themselves scrambling to adapt, FAFC adjusted quickly to a no-contact procedure with minimal interruption for clients. Drivers now pick up meal deliveries outside of Believer’s Temple and leave it outside clients’ homes without any direct contact. Fitness and nutrition programming has moved online. Their existing network of volunteer wellness professionals continue to serve clients in virtual support groups and consultations, while local volunteers mentor clients while social distancing.

However, the financial strain of the pandemic has led to a surge in demand for their pantry, increasing their waitlist for food delivery. Their team of five staff and seventy-five volunteers is working hard to meet the rising needs of the community, establishing a food drive and wishlist and requesting monetary donations. As they acquire more food and bring more people off the waitlist, they also need additional volunteer delivery drivers to help distribute meals.

“The unfortunate reality is that a lot of people are out of money and hungry. I think a lot of people are living under a really high level of stress right now,” says Joy. “We’re spending a lot of time on de-stressing, because you have to start somewhere...We’re finding small ways to make our clients feel better and build confidence from within. It is more important now than ever.”

Yet Joy remains optimistic that they’ll weather the pandemic alongside their clients. She is encouraged by the spirit and impact of giving that sustains their mission, “whether it's the clients’ lives we’re changing, or waking up to see these angels – all the people who give back. It’s a beautiful world that I get to see.”

The Fit and Food Connection is a long-time donation partner of Urban Harvest STL. To learn more about them, visit https://fitandfoodconnection.org