FOOD, MOVEMENT, & YOU
Food, Movement, & You is a free diabetes prevention and nutrition education program for families facing homelessness. Our program provides families experiencing homelessness opportunities to enhance their knowledge of the role of a healthful diet, increasing access to nutrient-dense foods, learning how to grow, prepare, and consume healthful foods, and increase physical activity, or “movement.”
As part of the University’s Driving Out Diabetes Initiative Food, Movement, & You (FMU) was created to provide free diabetes prevention and nutrition education for families facing homelessness across the Salt Lake Valley. Through these efforts we aim to improve health outcomes for families experiencing homelessness in Utah.
Our program aims to provide families experiencing homelessness opportunities to:
- Increase access to nutrient-dense foods,
- Enhance knowledge of the role diet plays in health,
- Learn how to produce, prepare, and consume healthy foods, and
- Increase physical activity, or “movement.”
Deeply Affordable Healthful Eating
Many people experiencing economic burdens, housing insecurity, or homelessness struggle to meet basic needs, such as obtaining healthful foods for themselves or their family. While it can sometimes be extremely difficult to find deeply affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, there are many healthful canned, dried, and frozen food options.
Frozen fruits and vegetables that do not have added sugars or salt are just as nutritious as fresh options and last much longer when frozen. Canned goods, such as beans, vegetables, and fruits, are great options and are even more healthy when rinsed with water to remove added salt or sugars. (Sugars can be listed in the ingredients under various names including but not limited to corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, glucose, molasses, and honey.) Dried goods, such as whole grains, including corn tortillas, beans, and lentils are usually affordable and packed with nutrients. You may have heard someone say that you should only eat brown rice because it is a whole. But that is not true. Pairing white rice with beans or vegetables provides a nutritious and affordable choice for those who many not enjoy or have access to brown rice.
We created the Food, Movement, and You (FMU) cookbook based on basic staples that are often found at emergency food pantries, through food banks, are generally available using benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, or are low-cost when purchased at the grocery store. Please download a free copy if it might be helpful for you or folks that you know!
Community Engagement
Food, Movement, and You engages with community members and organizations to address barriers to healthful eating for Utah families experiencing homelessness. These include:
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Collaborating with Waste Less Solutions to provide opportunities for community members to assist in diverting edible food from restaurants, catered events, and local gardeners to local community service organizations.
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Providing healthy recipes that feature shelf-stable foods available in emergency pantries and fresh produce available through donation.
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Delivering fresh produce from Wasatch Community Gardens' Farm to local shelters and Resource Centers.
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Running a twice-weekly community garden club in conjunction with women from Wasatch Community Gardens' Green Team, a farm-based job training program for women facing homelessness. Families are able to learn about and grow organic produce for their families, while our students learn from lived experience experts about the barriers to healthful eating for people experiencing homelessness. The photos below are from the community garden.
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Picking up and delivering Grade-A organic produce grown at and donated by Wasatch Community Gardens' Farm to emergency food pantries at local homeless service housing facilities and Homeless Resource Centers
