The Walmart Foundation Awards Calvary Women’s Services with $25,000 Grant to Fund New Nutrition Education Program

Calvary Women’s Services – which provides homeless women with both housing and services to empower independent living – announced today receiving a grant of $25,000 from the Walmart Foundation.

The major grant was awarded to Calvary to support the development of a new Nutrition Education Program. The program will include an intensive Nutrition Education Course, a wide variety of nutrition and health/wellness learning opportunities, cooking classes, and culinary job training referrals. This program will be offered in conjunction with Calvary’s comprehensive Support Services Program and will complement the Healthy Meals Program, which provides women two nutritious meals each day.

Calvary Women’s Services is newly equipped to launch the Nutrition Education Program. In December of 2012, Calvary moved into a renovated state of the art facility in DC’s Anacostia neighborhood, in order to expand services and serve more women. The expansion included adding a commercial-grade kitchen to the building, designed with space to hold hands-on cooking classes.

“The women that Calvary serves appreciate the tremendous support that this grant from the Walmart Foundation represents,” said Calvary Executive Director Kris Thompson. “This investment in the Nutrition Education Program ensures that we can bring new and dynamic health and wellness programming to homeless women in DC. This will be the first program of its kind at Calvary, and the Walmart Foundation has made it possible.”

Calvary resident Veronica likes the sound of the new class, and is interested in giving it a try. She spoke at length about how she enjoys certain healthy foods, particularly broccoli, but doesn’t always know how to work them into her diet. “It’s not that I don’t know what to eat – but not how to prepare it all the time.”

The new Nutrition Education Program will help Veronica and others identify foods they would like to eat that are healthy and how to best prepare them. They will also learn about best practices for buying the raw ingredients for making meals, and how to track calories and nutritional content. Women will have the opportunity to receive training in the Good Hope Kitchen at Calvary to get the hands-on experience of making a healthy meal, measuring out proper servings, and storing leftovers. And if women are interested in pursuing a job in the culinary field, Calvary will provide referrals into job training programs.

The Nutrition Education Program will be available to all of the 150 women that Calvary serves every year.

This grant was awarded by the Walmart Foundation and the District of Columbia Advisory Council as a part of the foundation’s State Giving Program. The Walmart Foundation is committed to supporting programs and initiatives that have a strong impact within their communities, especially in the areas of hunger relief and healthy eating, sustainability, women’s economic empowerment, and career opportunity.

For additional information about Calvary Women’s Services or the Calvary Nutrition Education Program, please contact Heather Laing at (202) 678-2341 ext. 220 or info@calvaryservices.org.