The Food Bank’s Healthy Habits team partnered with Crossroads, Rhode Island’s leading provider of housing and support services, to pilot Healthy Habits, Healthy Kitchen. The six-week nutrition education and cooking series was designed with input from Crossroads guests in the process of securing housing and focuses on building household skills. Our team shares simple, flexible recipes that work with basic ingredients, utensils, and limited cooking resources.
The 18 participants in the first round of classes are preparing for a fresh start, with Crossroads working to provide safe, affordable housing, and the Food Bank’s community nutrition team helping them to build practical, long-term skills they can carry with them into their future homes. The program covers key topics like food safety for the home cook; utilizing items readily available in food pantries; food budgeting; utensil safety; hot meal preparation methods; and more.
After two successful series of classes, we’re excited to continue our partnership with Crossroads as they find placement in permanent housing for more guests. Our goal is to bring these community nutrition classes directly to the residents, ensuring that anyone moving into their new home feels confident that they can prepare nutritious food for themselves.
