Food to Families

Dates & Times: See our Events Calendar for the Food to Families schedule
Location: Chestnut Linden Court, 1060 West Grant Avenue, Oakland CA

Free childcare and snacks provided!

In partnership with the West Oakland Health Council, the Foods to Families program provides fun health & nutrition education workshops, cooking demos, physical activity classes, prizes, and group experiences for community families. Currently this program is primarily serving pregnant mothers and their families who receive services through he Women Infants & Children and Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program at the Health Council. Lead by health educator Telia Jones, social worker Norma Mason, nutritionist Delinda Horton, and Mandela Marketplace's nutrition educator Leroy Musgraves, the Food to Families program seeks to provide an integrated holistic curriculum to build healthy communities. Food to Families classes also provide free transportation, child care, and snacks!

In addition to regular classes, expecting mothers also receive healthy food 'prescriptions' which can be redeemed at any Healthy Neighborhood Store Alliance partner (Mandela Foods Cooperative, Millennium Market, and Bottles Liquor) to incentive healthy eating in their daily lives, complementing the Food to Families curriculum.

The Food to Families program was born out of The Building Blocks Collaborative (BBC) which is a partnership of multi-sector community organizations in Alameda County. The BBC works in unison to developing a blueprint to improve community conditions in order to support the well-being of our children, starting from the earliest stages of life. Underpinning the BBC's work is a theoretical framework called the Life Course Perspective.