The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust’s (TSET) Food System Impact grants tackled pandemic-related food access issues and facilitated the distribution of more than 100,000 meals to seniors, youth and needy families, and the expansion of a program to increase access to fruits and vegetables for Oklahomans.
Beginning in August 2020, the seven funded grants, ranging from $36,000 to $408,000, targeted hunger in Oklahoma’s most vulnerable populations, including seniors and children. The funded grants also established relationships with numerous partners to leverage additional funding and enhanced services for their target populations. In total, the seven grants generated $2.47 million in direct assistance and $644,000 in in-kind assistance.
“The last two years have been difficult for all Oklahomans, but for those suffering from food insecurity, the pandemic intensified the struggle to get access to healthy foods,” said TSET Executive Director Julie Bisbee. “Fortunately, groups are working on this issue every single day, enabling TSET to step in and apply funds to meet these critical needs.”
The areas addressed by these grants, which spanned from August 2020 to December 2021, included senior nutrition and meals, increased community access to produce, nutrition and physical activity education for underserved urban populations, infrastructure for programs serving youth, and mobile food access to rural populations.
Major achievements of the grants included:
- 47,500+ meals for youth in Northeastern Oklahoma.
- 10,200+ families access to mobile community market in rural East Central Oklahoma.
- 48,000+ meals for seniors across the state.
- Expansion of a local food security cooperative in Northwestern Oklahoma.
- Expansion of a pilot program to offer increased access to produce through grocery stores in 10 Oklahoma communities.
- Implementation of a Community is Medicine program to 317 families in River West Neighborhood in Tulsa.
In addition to the services provided to the various target communities, organizations learned valuable information about the causes of hunger and methods for addressing the problem with Oklahoma-centered solutions.
“TSET funding has made a tremendous impact on our program and our most vulnerable seniors in Northwest Oklahoma,” said Christy Baker, executive director of RSVP Enid. “Even through COVID, we have found we have a better quality program and plan to keep our programs running as they are currently.”
“Investing in issues like food insecurity is helping the people with the most need,” said Bisbee. “An equally important part of our funding strategy is to bring a spotlight on programs that can do great things with the right support. In this endeavor, these grant organizations excelled in both the service and partnership parts of their work.” For information, got to oklahoma.gov/tset-programs/healthy-lifestyle-grants.html.