‘Women helping women’ food program fights infant mortality
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“It’s atrocious,” Becca Tuholski says sadly, while reciting the infant mortality rates in northwest Indiana that haunt her and other leaders at the NWI Food Council. The number of babies dying in Gary is triple the state’s rate—the ninth highest in the U.S.—and the rate nudges even higher among the city’s non-Hispanic black infants.
The tragic plight of babies in the region motivated the not-for-profit food council to launch a new program centered on women sharing the bounty of their harvests and delivering farm fresh food to first-time moms.
Each month, mothers who live at or below the federal poverty level will receive a free tote full of locally grown produce, locally produced meats and even self-care items from woman-owned businesses in the region. Called FarmHer to Mama, the program uses only female farmers and producers in the seven-county area to fill the totes.
Faith, a Lake County mother with two boys under the age of two, is one of 50 moms who received the program’s first batch of totes this month. The box included a long list of items, such as a variety of squashes, fresh greens, potatoes and pork chops with coinciding ingredients for the enclosed dinner recipe.
“When you have little kids, [the tote] makes it so much easier, because it’s one less stop at the grocery store and a quick, easy dinner you have on hand—and you get a new recipe out of it,” says Faith. “It definitely saves you at least $20, especially with the price of meat these days, so it helps out with the grocery bill.”
Faith says the totes are introducing her to healthier options she likely wouldn’t have tried otherwise.
The totes, which will expand to 100 moms, are delivered by nurses with the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), a community health program that provides a home visiting nurse to each family during pregnancy and the first two years of the baby’s life. Visionaries from NFP, Purdue Extension and NWI Food Council earned a $600,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Health to launch the “really beautiful, female-centered program of women helping other women,” says Tuholski, who is the local food access coordinator for the food council.
Tuholski, who was recently named one of the Most Influential Women of La Porte County, says the core mission of FarmHer to Mama is to tackle the region’s high infant mortality rate by addressing one of its major causes, which is food insecurity among mothers. Tuholski says it also empowers female entrepreneurs, with a special focus on minorities; of the 19 female farmers, eight are black or Latina.
In addition to two pork farmers already on board, chicken, egg and beef producers are being added to the roster as the program works to add more protein to the totes.
“We have some female farmers who are raising pork on their property; there are a lot of people who are doing things really small scale—some just in their backyards or urban farms—and it’s been so cool to see this broad spectrum of people and how they’re running their farms,” says Tuholski. “We’re trying to really highlight these small beginner farmers—it’s not just all big industrial farms in our area.”
Tuholski describes the first tote’s locally grown produce, which she says is bountiful even in the winter.
Because FarmHer to Mama also aims to promote mothers’ well-being, a special self-care item packed in the first tote was a bouquet of dried flowers.
“I thought that was so nice,” says Faith. “Being a single mom, you don’t really get flowers that much or those little things to treat yourself. It was like a little message saying, ‘You’re special.’ It helps you feel supported having those little goodies for yourself too.”
Faith admits her family likely wouldn’t have tried squash had it not been in the tote, “so it was nice trying something new that’s also healthy for you.” Purdue Extension will soon ramp up nutrition guidance for the moms through special training and classes offered in-person or virtually.
Program leaders say the meaningful work not only nourishes mothers and babies, but also improves farmer viability, especially among women and minorities.
The organization has worked to contract with farmers to help them understand how much they need to grow for the program. Tuholski says they have at least $90,000 devoted to local food purchases over the next three and a half years.
“As a first-time mom and farmer myself, I’m just so excited to serve other moms in this capacity. When my husband and I started our business, this was the work we hoped to be doing,” says Tuholski. “The feeling of love that goes into creating these totes, the moms really feel that, and we’re excited to be doing it.”
Tuholski says a new effort to purchase products in advance is helping local farmers grow more.
You can learn more about FarmHer to Mama by clicking here.