Mary and Myra
Meet Mary and Myra, two sisters on a journey to improving their health by eating healthier foods. Mary and Myra enrolled in the Community Market Basket program this year. The fresh produce plays a key role in the sister’s quest to eat better and live better. Negative health issues prompted Mary and Myra to eat more fresh vegetables and move around more. With limited transportation and food budgets, shopping at markets for healthier foods outside of their neighborhood was becoming more of a challenge.
In the Community Market Basket summer program, Mary and Myra get produce delivered to their door and recipes to learn how to prepare the produce. Their home is one of the five senior towers that receive weekly veggie boxes delivered by No More Empty Pots staff. Mary and Myra have reported weight loss, more energy, reduced medications, and healthier better tasting meals (the produce is really fresh!) since enrolling in the program. They loved the program so much that they have also enrolled for fall shares.
With produce aggregated from 75 different farmers in Iowa and Nebraska, Tomato Tomato is the partner that gets the freshest food available. Funding from Nebraska State Recycling Association helped with the purchase of the refrigerated truck that is used to deliver fresh produce. Multi-year funding from Wholesome Wave through the USDA Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive supports SNAP recipients as they transition to healthier diets.
Myra and Mary sharing their Community Market Basket experience with Congressman Brad Ashford
Mary and Myra are building community as they eat better by supporting local farmers and the local economy. Each dollar that they spend on local foods is multiplied and creates a positive effect for them and for the community around them that makes local foods possible.
If you want to know more about the Community Market Basket program and how to get involved, contact Gwen at 402.502.1642 or by email ginglissteinfeld@www.nmepomaha.org.