GOOCHLAND, Va. — Nutrition is a key component to overall health, and we’re helping our rural neighbors on the final day of National Nutrition Month, a campaign to better educate everyone about healthy eating decisions. Local organizations are sharing recipes to improve health. The lives of people living on low incomes.
GoochlandCares is a nonprofit, free clinic that provides comprehensive, integrated services through 12 different programs, including a community food bank.
Sally Graham is a nurse by trade and brings her experience in the field to her role running GoochlandCares.
“For me personally, this was an opportunity to really understand what it takes to improve someone’s quality of life and make someone healthy,” Graham said. If children don’t eat enough, they won’t be able to do well in school. In short, diet is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. ”
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A major barrier to this is food insecurity, which a significant number of Goochland residents experience at one point or another. In 2023, more than 2,000 of his clients, including hundreds of children, used his GoochlandCares food bank program, providing the equivalent of 534,014 meals.
Graham said several factors led to an increase in the number of people seeking help in the years following the pandemic.
“More than 300 families are coming back every week. We’re finding that families who previously might have come once or twice a month are now coming every week. Inflation, food stamps, all these trends are having a huge impact on need. ,” she said.
Rural counties like Goochland face significant transportation challenges for residents seeking access to fresh, healthy food. Goochland County is about 40 miles long, and Graham said many of his customers have to travel 15 to 20 miles to reach downtown buildings.
Grocery stores are a completely different matter.
“The western part of Goochland is a food desert. There’s a grocery store in Goochland, where I’m at, but there’s no grocery store until you get to Fork Union. So even if you have a little bit of transportation, or you can get around by car. But you wouldn’t be able to get there if you had a bike or something,” Graham said.
Despite these challenges, Goochland Cares is focused on educating its medical customers at free clinics about how nutrition impacts their overall view of health.
“I think we all know that if you eat better, you’ll do better, but access to that food is also important,” said Heather Buzzard, clinic coordinator at Goochland Cares. “There are doctors who literally take their patients to the food pantry and say, you have high blood pressure, you need to avoid this part of the food and choose things like low-sodium, fresh foods. What’s going on? We want them to be invested in their own success, whatever that may be.”
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Buzzard said the volunteer doctors and nurses have come together in recent months after participating in several workshops and seminars about the importance of using food as a medical tool for underserved populations. The company said it has strengthened its nutrition education efforts.
“When I get the lab tested, they’re like, ‘Oh, I see, that definitely affected me,’ and they’re creating a healthier environment for me,” Buzzard said. . “We look at healthy recipes, print them out and want them to be part of their shopping experience. People may not know how to use lentils, but they can find delicious and healthy recipes. I’ll show you some good ways to use lentils.
Graham and Buzzard said there are some misconceptions about food insecurity, especially in rural areas like Goochland.
We often find that people who have not experienced hunger are unaware that their neighbors may be suffering from hunger.
“It’s easy to not think about people going hungry, especially in your own community, especially in a wealthy county like Goochland. It’s beyond people’s comprehension that there are people going hungry in Goochland. “There is,” Graham said.
Clients may also feel stigmatized for seeking help or worry that they don’t deserve the service, she said.
“The only thing that discourages all of us here is just the stigma that if you need help, it’s somehow socially unacceptable, because if we didn’t want to help our neighbors, we wouldn’t exist. And sometimes that’s where life leads,” Buzzard said. “It’s a very welcoming place, but you don’t know until you walk in that door. So if you think you need help, come to the front door and see what we can do for you.” Let’s do it.”
You can find out more about all the services provided by Goochland Cares on our website.
In the meantime, anyone who wants to help with the nutrition mission can join the annual food drive. The event will run from April 1st to April 27th, and the goal is to collect 45,000 pounds of food.
Last year, almost that amount was raised, but it was gone in four months.
For more information on how to contribute, please contact Dominic Alexander at 804-556-0400.
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