Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - Education (SNAP-Ed): Health Promotion Council is a Pennsylvania Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education provider, a program that supports evidence-based nutrition education and obesity prevention interventions and projects for persons eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through complementary direct education, multi-level interventions, and community and public health approaches to improve nutrition. The focus of the program is: 1) to improve the likelihood that persons eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose physically active lifestyles; and, 2) to help the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education target audience limit risk factors to prevent or postpone the onset of disease by establishing healthier eating habits and being more physically active. Health Promotion Council services are delivered at a variety of school-age and adult settings.
Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change Approaches such as multi-level interventions and community and public health approaches are implemented, in addition to individual or group-based nutrition education, to deliver effective, evidence-based nutrition education and obesity prevention programming. Health Promotion Council implements policy, systems, and environmental change initiatives across various settings to promote healthy behaviors by making the healthy choice the easy choice.
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP): The federal Child and Adult Care Food Program provides nutritious meals to children and adults in emergency housing, childcare, adult care, and other settings throughout the United States. Funded by the Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services, Health Promotion Council offers specialized training and technical assistance to seven Philadelphia family emergency housing shelters to improve the planning, preparation and serving of nutritious meals for shelter residents.
Breastfeeding Friendly Shelter Initiative: funded through SNAP-Ed, this program seeks to identify family shelter breastfeeding champions, train champions and designated staff to support implementation of the Breastfeeding Friendly Shelter Initiative policy and the development of informational materials and technical assistance modules to support project sustainability.
Farm to School Garden of Eatin’ Project with PHMC’s Fairwold Academy: The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Farm to School program aims to address inequities in access to therapy garden activities and improve access to local foods for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). HPC implements the Garden of Eatin’ Project for special education students ages 5 to 21 attending Fairwold Academy. The Garden of Eatin’ Project expands the existing garden infrastructure to create an edible teaching garden, integrating agriculture and nutrition education The program also provides Harvest Tasting Events and Take-Home Harvest Days to improve fresh produce consumption and agricultural/nutritional knowledge among Fairwold students.
Cities Changing Diabetes: Activate! Advocates for Diabetes Prevention: In collaboration with HPC’s Advocacy Institute, Cities Changing Diabetes program is designed to empower Philadelphia youth aged 13-17 years old, to understand the risk factors for type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes that exist in their homes, schools, and communities, the local policies that impact their health, and how they can work within their communities to make sustainable health changes.
Additional Partnerships: The Nutrition and Active Living Department has additional nutrition education and technical assistance projects with a number of partners.