Walk for Good Food 2020 Blog Series: In celebration of the Walk for Good Food, Access will be posting interviews with the non-profit organizations that are receiving funding from this years Walk. Read below about why Good Food (food that is healthy, fair, affordable, and green) is important to their work. Eight organizations receive funding from the Walk, each with their own important role to play in creating a thriving food system for all. To walk with us or learn more visit accessofwestmichigan.org/walk.
AWM: Tell us a little bit about your organization: your mission and the work that you do.
NEWC: We connect 30 non-profits who share their resources with one another and the community. NEWC publishes a newsletter of healthy opportunities, provides mental health training to schools and businesses, promotes fitness, and encourages good nutrition and healthy food for all.
The work of NEWC is to connect organizations and individuals to increase opportunities for healthy living and mental wellness throughout the Creston and Belknap Neighborhoods. To that end we (1) share knowledge and resources, (2) learn together, and (3) create healthy options through training, communication and providing access.
AWM: Why is Good Food (fair, affordable, healthy, and accessibly) important to your work?
NEWC: We support the neighborhood Meatless Monday program and hope to engage with local gardening activities. All our activities are available to the entire population of the Creston neighborhood. We are working to promote NECM’s Fresh Market. Our approach to health promotion is holistic. We concurrently foster activities that benefit all facets of one’s well-being. Accordingly, we recognize that good food is key to both mental and physical health.
AWM: What is your organization doing to support a Good Food System?
NEWC: NEWC’s work in the Creston and Belknap neighborhoods has been dubbed “the Blue Zone” of Grand Rapids! Our work fosters a culture of health for individuals in community where we “Eat well. Move more. Stress less. and Love more.”
AWM: What is one thing you’re looking forward to about this year’s Walk for Good Food?
NEWC: NEWC’s participation in the walk will emphasize the importance of holistic health. NEWC is in the process of expanding its work. To date, we have targeted mental health and physical fitness as primary goals. We have accomplished many of our original goals and now can expand our horizons to accentuate the power of good food and nutrition.
AWM: Anything else important we should know?
NEWC: We meet on the third Thursday of every month from 9:30-10:45am in the Creston Neighborhood Association’s community room (205 Carrier NE). NEWC publishes a newsletter every other month in which it markets to subscribers healthy living classes and activities provided by NEWC member organizations. Many of these offerings are nutritionally focused. Most importantly, we’re developing walking programs to meet residents’ needs. Those opportunities will be published post-virus and will primarily take place on the North Quarter Pathways, an urban trail created by NEWC in 2019.
To learn more about healthy eating and living, please visit our website at https://northendwellness.org/.