Fresno’s new BFF? Michelle Obama and her plan to give meal kits to food-insecure families

Talk about some great news to start the year with: Former first lady Michelle Obama announced Tuesday she will provide more than 100,000 nutritious meal kits to Fresnans who don’t have enough healthy food to eat.

The gift comes through her “Pass the Love w/Waffles and Mochi” outreach and the Partnership for a Healthier America.

“I’m thrilled to share that we’ll soon be distributing healthy meal kits to families in Fresno as part of our Pass the Love campaign with @PHAnews!” Obama said on Twitter.

As reported by Bee staff writer Melissa Montalvo, PHA and the Central California Food Bank will distribute 120,000 healthy meals to food-insecure Fresno families as PHA works to meet its goal of distributing 1 million meals across the country.

Kym Dildine, co-CEO of the Food Bank, noted how the timing could not be better.

“We have seen a huge spike in need in our community and this partnership with the ‘Pass the Love w/ Waffles + Mochi’ campaign could not come at a better time,” she noted.

Plague of hunger

Fresno is one of the poorest cities in the nation, and has long struggled with the plague of hunger.

Natalie Caples, the Food Bank’s other co-CEO, said one in three children in Central California suffers from chronic hunger.

Nearly 39% of children in Fresno County live in poverty — the highest rate in the state — and the child food insecurity rate in the county is 22%.

The COVID pandemic has heightened the problem, as lower-income families experienced unemployment and had more challenges securing nutritional food.

Montalvo reported that Fresno County has .26 grocery stores per 1,000 residents. But there are .65 fast-food restaurants per 1,000 people.

Food education

The Partnership for a Healthier America’s campaign is to teach food-insecure people how to make nutritious meal choices.

PHA’s long-term goal is “food equity,” where low-income neighborhoods can access fresh fruits and vegetables like higher-income people do.

West Fresno, with a population of 40,000, has but one supermarket. It is also Fresno’s poorest and unhealthiest neighborhood.

So the real assistance of healthy meal kits, plus the education outreach, will pay real dividends.

The meal kits have been developed by Genuine Foods and come with nutritional recipes for family meals, such as sweet potato black bean soup, vegetable enchiladas and sesame coconut noodle salad.

The kits will be sold to families at a price that competes with the cost of fast food meals, Montalvo reported.

Such practical help to meet real needs is exactly what Fresno needs.

Fresno families interested in picking up healthy meal kits can visit the Central California Food Bank website for details on how to sign up and where food distribution will take place starting the week of Jan. 17.

This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 11:28 AM.