Community gardens, educational programs and breastfeeding rooms are all part of Missouri’s plan to take advantage of one-time federal funding for Head Start programs.
Seven Missouri Head Start kitchens are set to receive nearly $2 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of the office’s efforts to promote healthy eating and nutritious foods.
The funding comes as part of a push from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose office rolled out the “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy” in early September. HHS said in a press release that $61 million in funding will assist more than 100,000 children and families across the country.
In Missouri, it will pay for kitchen upgrades, community gardens, bulk cooking lessons and more.
How Head Start programs are taking on nutrition education
July data from the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at the University of Missouri found that between 2021 and 2023, an average of 12.7% of Missouri homes experienced food insecurity, a 10% increase compared to the period between 2018 and 2020.
That equates to nearly 780,000 Missourians. Of those, about 356,000 are experiencing very low food security, where eating habits are interrupted.
For many children, a meal at Head Start schools will be the most nutritious they get all day, 2021 research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows.
Lunches provided in Head Start centers provided more than the benchmark levels for vegetables, grains, bread, dairy and protein foods, while breakfasts exceeded benchmark levels for fruit, grains and dairy.
On days when children were in child care programs, meals and snacks contributed to 40% of calories a child consumed that day. And in Missouri, Head Start kitchens play a crucial role in addressing increasing food insecurity rates. In April, the federal government closed five of the 10 regional Head Start offices and fired staff, although legal challenges are underway.
For nutrition coordinators across the state’s Head Start programs, the funding presented a rare opportunity for essential upgrades. Many Head Start kitchens use commercial kitchen equipment, which can cost thousands of dollars to upgrade or replace.
“The majority of our money does go directly to providing the services for the children,” said Kayla Marmaud, the community relations director for the Community Action Partnership of Greater St. Joseph. “When you have funding that goes for the children in your care directly, some of the other things are put on the back burner.”
HHS required that half of the overall funding be used for materials, supplies and equipment for farm-to-table strategies, cooking demonstrations and appliance upgrades. Another quarter of the funding goes toward food service upgrades and sourcing local nutritious foods, while the remainder of the money will contribute to education, workshops and community events.
In Springfield, Head Start staff kept a running list of upgrades that were needed. When the funding was announced, they were able to check that list and pick top priorities.
“We selected the things that we felt like were the most pressing issues, or the ones that could give us the biggest bang for our buck, knowing that this is a one-time and not continuing project,” said Kimberly Shinn-Brown, the Head Start program director at Ozarks Area Community Action in Springfield.
They plan to make food service upgrades, as well as a slew of upgrades to their Head Start locations that have residential-style kitchens. Part of that means making the kitchens easier to use and work in for their staff, Shinn-Brown said.
Ozarks Area Community Action and others are also pursuing educational programs to help benefit their families. In Springfield, they requested money to bring on a new nutrition education program aimed at Gen Z families. The program sends out tidbits of information over text, so families can more easily incorporate nutrition education into their lives.
“They don’t want to talk to someone on the phone, and they don’t necessarily want to have a face-to-face meeting with you,” Shinn-Brown said. “But they do tend to be responsive if you text them.”
“It doesn’t matter how great your resources are if people won’t use them,” she said. “So we wanted to look at how our parents are accessing information, and what are their preferences?”
Daphne Graham, the health and nutrition coordinator at Ozark Action in West Plains, Missouri, knew the organization would have five new Early Head Start centers opening this fall, and requested funds to help with breastfeeding rooms for their families in those new centers.
They also are expanding meal options for parents of kids enrolled in Head Start to help showcase some of the cooking and exposure to different foods their kids get at school. The organization also plans to purchase more than 40 vacuum seal kits to give away to families across their 22 Head Start classrooms, with plans to help families learn more about batch cooking and preservation.
“Our demographic is very low-income … families that are sometimes just barely getting by as it is, and maybe education is not something they enjoy,” said Graham. “They don’t want to sit and listen to a lecture, but they would take in so much more in-person, so that’s where our education is going.”
In St. Joseph, they are applying those same principles to build community gardens at some of their Head Start schools and to create a new demonstration kitchen that will bring families closer to food.
“With the cost of food increasing, our resources sometimes tend to be more limited,” said Marmaud. “We wanted to be able to provide an opportunity that we could have community partners come in and be able to teach people how to get the most out of their resources.”
That sort of hands-on learning is shown to increase uptake of nutritious foods, said Lauren Landfried, a dietitian and associate professor in the St. Louis University Department of Nutrition and Dietetics.
“Getting kids exposure early is hugely impactful for their future health,” Landfried said. “If the kids are able to be a part of any of this, they’re more likely to consume the food. They’re more likely to have that positive relationship to expose others, too.”
What is needed to create more nutritious meals for Head Start?
Although the one-time funding was a welcome start to the winter months, critics argue that the funding does not go far enough in the face of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and its sister program, SNAP-Ed, which provides nutrition education and other programs that address food insecurity.
“Any funding that goes to enhance nutrition education should be applauded and celebrated,” said Clarissa Hayes, the deputy director of child nutrition programs and policy at the Food Research and Action Center. “But at the end of the day, we know that this funding is not enough and it’s really putting a Band-Aid on the issue.”
Under new requirements for SNAP, most individuals will be required to show proof of 80 hours of work, caregiving, schooling or volunteering to receive benefits. In Missouri, that could equate to about 150,000 people losing food assistance benefits.
And under a new waiver request from Gov. Mike Kehoe, the food items SNAP pays for are set to change. The changes would bar SNAP recipients from buying soda and candy, similar to recent changes made in Kansas.
“The problem is not everybody knows how to cook,” Landfried said. “The assumption is that the people know what to do with the food that they are prescribed, which is not the case. In my experience, I had to do a lot of education on how to cook.”
Both Landfried and Hayes see the reliance on other assistance like food banks increasing while families try to stretch their spending on food.
Ultimately, these one-time dollars won’t do much to address the food insecurity issues rising across Missouri, Hayes said.
“It’s not enough,” she said. “It’s very hypocritical in light of all of the other cuts that this administration has made to the nutrition safety net.”
