Warren County Family Care Providers Aided By Child Nutrition Grant Through United Way

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — Four Hackettstown family care providers and other Warren County-based care providers are among those who'll be part of an effort to support healthy eating for children.

United Way of Northern New Jersey has been approved for a $50,000 New Jersey Child Nutrition Fund Innovation Award to support a comprehensive healthy eating campaign for its child care pilot project, United In Care. The grant is administered through the Philadelphia-based Reinvestment Fund.

The healthy eating initiative, called United in Care, operates in a hub-and-spokes model. Partners who are licensed child care centers (hubs) work with registered local family care providers (spokes) to expand capacity, leverage expertise, share resources, and sustain critical infrastructure, a news statement explained.

United In Care's Warren County alliance consists of Little Wonders Childcare and Learning Center in Lopatcong as the hub and 10 registered Warren County-based family care providers as the spokes. The program will serve approximately 50 families and 66 children, according to United Way of Northern New Jersey.

The grant includes bulk purchasing of nutritious foods and food preparation supplies, bulk food storage, healthy eating outreach to families, healthy meal preparation training, and education and potential enrollment in the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program where appropriate. The yearlong program will launch in March.

This initiative toward healthy eating and bulk purchasing is in line with the mission of United In Care to increase the affordability and the quality of child care for those struggling to make ends meet, described as "ALICE" (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), and families in poverty.

United In Care also aims to improve the quality of life for child care workers, many of whom are ALICE essential workers themselves, a United Way of Northern New Jersey news statement explained.

"This grant, which reinforces the benefits of our shared services platform, will help our childcare business owners offset rising food costs while also providing healthy, nutritious meals to children and families in their care," said United Way's Senior Director of Strategies Michelle Roers, who oversees the United In Care project.

"We are extremely grateful to Reinvestment Fund for this generous donation and its commitment to building strong, healthy, and more equitable communities," Roers said.

The United Way said money from the grant will go directly towards the purchase of freezers, pantries, food storage containers and non-disposable kitchenware for all 10 family care providers as well as for Little Wonders, which will also receive a dishwasher to maintain a more sanitized kitchen in a larger childcare center setting.

In addition, United In Care will coordinate with local super markets and farms to establish a healthy meal preparation training program. Once a month, enrolled families, Little Wonders, and the family care providers will receive a shopping bag of healthy fresh ingredients, a Zoom link to attend a cooking demonstration led by ShopRite, and tips and tricks for encouraging kids to eat new, healthier foods. The group will be "together from home" with families ending each class with their own nutritious meal to enjoy, the news release explained.

The United In Care pilot program has the potential to be implemented statewide and nationally. All facets, including the healthy eating and bulk purchasing initiatives, are intended to be shared, replicated, customized, and scaled for other communities facing dire shortages in quality early education and care, including New Jersey’s Gloucester and Hudson Counties, where two additional United In Care networks are operating, according to United Way of Northern New Jersey.

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