The lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life in early childhood can have lasting effects on brain development, learning, social interaction, and overall health. More than one of every six children living in South Central Kentucky do not have access to adequate resources for healthy foods during this critical period of development. Yet, approximately 30% of produced foods end up in a landfill. In response to a grant funding announcement to improve food security of children aged 0 – 5 years, Dr. Courtney Luecking, Extension Specialist for health and nutrition for the prenatal to preschool period, assembled community partners from four agencies - Glean Kentucky, the Campus Kitchen at the University of Kentucky, Community Action Council, and the University of Kentucky Nutrition Education Program. The result was an innovative partnership to simultaneously address food security and food waste by leveraging each agency’s mission and day-to-day functions to facilitate redistribution of excess fruit and vegetables and nutritious pantry staples to families experiencing food insecurity.

In this partnership, Glean Kentucky recovers excess fresh fruits and vegetables from a local food store and delivers them to the Community Action Council’s central kitchen for processing. The Campus Kitchen at the University of Kentucky, a partner agency of God’s Pantry Food Bank within the Feeding America network, provides student volunteers and resources to assist food recovery, purchasing, packaging, and distribution processes. The Community Action Council addresses poverty through service delivery, community involvement, and advocacy. In addition to identifying families with children aged 0 – 5 years experiencing food insecurity, the Council used federal money for Covid-19 economic relief to purchase additional pantry staples (e.g., brown rice, powdered milk, peanut butter) to create boxes of food including whole grains, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and protein. Finally, the Kentucky Nutrition Education Program, which encompasses the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education and is administered by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, provided targeted nutrition education materials to support families in proper storage, preparation, and use of distributed foods.

Between February and June 2021, 235 families with children aged 0 – 5 years received nutritionally balanced boxes of food, valued at approximately $50 each, and nutrition education resources on a three-to-five-week rotation. The region served by this partnership represents a distinct compilation of factors, including low access to fresh produce and economic hardship, that affects equity in access to healthy foods that has resulted in high rates of child food insecurity. This partnership addresses needs by building infrastructure for a sustainable partnership to redirect excess fresh fruit and vegetables and pantry staples. Dr. Luecking is working with Mrs. Ashly Frank, a dietetics student and recipient of an Undergraduate Student Sustainability Summer Fellowship, to evaluate the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of the partnership and impact on families’ access to and use of fresh foods and to apply findings to support similar models across the Commonwealth.