Grant helps Wello expand fresh produce program

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – A health and wellness organization is getting fresh, locally-grown produce to low-income people.

Wello’s program is called Cultivating Community. It brings produce to socially disadvantaged and BIPOC — Black, indigenous and other people of color — communities.

The produce is distributed at certain locations, including Casa Alba and We All Rise African-American Resource Center.

Staff at We All Rise say fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t the norm in many Black households.

“Truly the expense of it is very high and just it’s not normalized in the community,” Charles Caston Jr., a community navigator at We All Rise, said. “It was a time for us to introduce produce to the most marginalized communities — and not just introduce it to them but also help them understand what was being provided in the boxes with labels and explain to them the ingredients so they know how to prepare what’s in the box.”

Wello is an organization that works to address health equity challenges. Cultivating Community started in 2020 in response to the pandemic. A new, $180,000 grant will allow the program to continue and expand and include new community partners.

“Cultivating Community is designed to fill some of the gaps with food insecurity and hunger relief programs in our county. Some of the existing mechanisms have some barriers associated with them — so, having to show proof of income, citizenship. There’s different pieces of that puzzle that don’t make it the best for some members of our community,” Wello executive director Emily Bomstad said.

The program runs from July to November. This year there are also plans to provide local turkeys for Thanksgiving.

There’s also a new pilot program providing boxes of food to post-partum moms that include items like organic baby food and fresh produce that’s already peeled, sliced and diced for moms to eat.

According to data in Brown County, Black women in Wisconsin are up to four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women.

Copyright 2024 WBAY. All rights reserved.