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This week, the LaCarte Wellness team ventured downtown to the Atlanta Foundation Center. The Foundation Center maintains an extensive database of foundations, corporate donors, and other grantmakers and is a leading resource for nonprofit organizations searching for information and training they need to be successful.
With an ongoing obesity epidemic in the country, it is important that wellness programs are affordable and accessible to everyone regardless of socioeconomic status. There are many grantmakers offering funding to nonprofit organizations to help make these programs a reality in communities all across the nation.
What resources does the Foundation Center have to help your organization?
There are five Foundation Center libraries in the United States, located in New York City, Washington D.C., Cleveland, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Unlimited access to their online resources is free inside the center, but even if you don’t live in one of these cities, the Foundation Center website offers a great deal of information and resources. Check out their proposal writing short course and useful selection of free online training courses and webinars.
At LaCarte Wellness, we help for-profit and non-profit organizations find grants and write proposals for all types of wellness programs. These programs vary widely and may range from a coporation’s employee diabetes education class series, to an elementary school’s farm-to-school garden program. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help.
What resources do you use to find grant funding for your company or community wellness initiatives?
Last week the USDA changed the nation’s food icon from the sometimes confusing, often misunderstood myPyramid to the new MyPlate. Now that the dust has settled and the excitement has worn off, it’s time to examine how useful this will be for consumers, healthcare professionals, and wellness programs.
Several nutrition experts have written about the new tool on their blogs, and most have found the new MyPlate food icon as a simple, and easy to understand tool. Many nutrition professionals agree that the basic message of dedicating half of your plate to fruits and vegetables is realistic. However, some are up in arms over the small circle to the right of the plate that encourages people to consume dairy products, because it could be counted as a protein, as well as the fact that it can be offensive to vegans. Even though not everyone agrees with the inclusion of dairy in the icon, it is still a good representation of what a balanced plate should look like. While this tool will not solve obesity, it is a step in the right direction. For many people the pyramid was too abstract and many people weren’t sure what to eat or how much. The plate model makes it much simpler for consumers to visualize and understand.
The USDA has identified the following selected messages that they would like for professionals to help consumers work on. These goals include:
In addition to of the launch of the MyPlate food icon and selected messages, the website, www.choosemyplate.gov, has an array of resources to help professionals and consumers. Available resources include: sample menus, tips to help you achieve a balanced plate, a food tracker, and personalized daily food plans. Also available are audience specific materials for pregnant and breastfeeding women, preschoolers, children, and for those who are trying to lose weight.
What does your plate look like?