Rooted Santa Barbara County (Rooted) and the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County (Foodbank SBC) have fashioned an progressive training collaboration: using graphic design, animation, video, and the accessibility of social media, our organizations have helped make plant-based diet accessible to our Spanish-preferring neighbors. Our organizations are dedicated to creating equitable entry to training on the position of meals in well being. By coming collectively, we’re offering diet experience, cultural consciousness, and a how-to plan for our group members, together with our neighbors with the best limitations to good well being.
Our organizations linked arms to develop two ten-day on-line jumpstarts known as Comer Para Prosperar/Eat to Thrive. With the assist of Feeding America and the T. Colin Campbell Middle for Diet Research, we developed culturally recognizable recipes changing animal-source meals with crops. To display how one can embody plant-based different substances, we created quick animated movies to deliver the kitchen to life. The Spanish language jumpstart packages launched on the Foodbank SBC’s Spanish Fb web page (FoodbankSBEspanol), and in 2023 they are going to be printed in each Spanish and English on Rooted’s soon-to-be-launched bilingual on-line studying platform. Moreover, growth of the packages’ attain could embody extending the movies and actions to healthcare suppliers and clinic wait rooms, different meals banks regionally, and extra.
Coming collectively, we had just a few priorities for the mission:
- To be welcoming and related to our Latinx and under-resourced communities served by Foodbank SBC.
- To fulfill group members the place they have been and establish meals they have been possible cooking with that have been each culturally and domestically accessible (small habits can result in massive adjustments down the highway).
- To assist a higher understanding of the well being advantages of plant-based meals, and the way scrumptious, easy and cost-effective they are often.
Every jumpstart cycle produced ten days of enjoyable, fast actions and included a giveaway to stimulate engagement and suggestions. 4 winners chosen grocery markets of their space and obtained present playing cards mailed to their addresses. With the primary cycle launching in Could and the second in November, we realized that there’s substantial and rising curiosity in plant-based consuming amongst our neighbors. Whereas it may be difficult to stimulate direct interactions for brand new packages on Fb, we considerably grew engagements between the primary and second periods. We used two Fb Stay occasions to create significant alternatives to attach, test in, hear from our group, and reply questions.
Our aim was to succeed in 2,500 county residents within the first 12 months. We grew from a attain of 300 in cycle one to over 4,500 in cycle two! Our most seen submit featured a immediate to “¡Prueba esto! (Do this!)” suggesting alternativas de leche (milk options) and reached over 4,000 folks. Probably the most direct engagement was on our Fb Stay occasions, one in every of which obtained 42 likes, 21 shares, and three feedback throughout cycle 2 of the jumpstart program.
Our partnership is an instance of how healthcare and meals service group organizations can construct the bridge between meals and well being in native communities and make wholesome choices possible and extra pleasing. We noticed via this program that the usage of Spanish social media retailers can broaden the attain for diet training, with significantly excessive engagement when specialists consultant of the group being served are accessible through reside social media occasions. The Latinx group in Santa Barbara County is clearly within the instruments and elevated entry to plant-based and plant-forward sources, and that curiosity is rising. By means of Rooted’s plant-based and the Foodbank SBC’s Meals as Medication packages, we’re wanting ahead to persevering with to accomplice to assist our group Comer Para Prosperar/Eat to Thrive!
Rooted Santa Barbara County’s mission is to mobilize Santa Barbara County to develop well being fairness and resilience via entire meals plant-based diet training and assist.
The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County’s mission is to assist our group in shifting from starvation to well being by ending starvation and remodeling the well being of Santa Barbara County via good diet and diet training.
Beth Skidmore, MSACN, serves as Chair and Govt Lead of Rooted Santa Barbara County. Lacey Baldiviez, PhD, is the Chief Affect Officer for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.
Copyright 2025 Middle for Diet Research. All rights reserved.
