A long-running prenatal education and nutrition program in London is expanding its reach, thanks to a significant financial commitment from the London Food Bank.
Community leaders gathered Monday morning outside the commercial kitchen at the London InterCommunity Health Centre’s Huron Street location to celebrate the expansion of Smart Start for Babies, a program operated by the Middlesex-London Health Unit for the past 30 years.
The program supports nearly 200 participants annually and provides weekly prenatal education and nutrition sessions for pregnant individuals who enrol before 30 weeks of pregnancy and continue until their baby is born.
Participants receive pregnancy-specific nutritional guidance, hands-on food preparation experience, skill-building opportunities, social connections and referrals to community services. Programming is facilitated by public health dietitians and nurses.
A three-year commitment of more than $200,000 annually from the London Food Bank has allowed the program to grow from six weekly groups to eight.
Two new locations are part of the expansion. One group operates at the Huron Street location of the London InterCommunity Health Centre, welcoming its clients. The other is offered at BGC London in partnership with Type Diabeat-it, serving members of the African, Caribbean and Black communities.
“Good nutrition is foundational for healthy pregnancy and healthy newborns. For many reasons, not every pregnant individual has access to the nutrition they need during this time. Smart Start for Babies fills an important role – but we couldn’t grow to meet the diverse needs of our community without partnerships like these ones,” says Dr. Alex Summers, Medical Officer of Health at the Middlesex-London Health Unit.
“The London Food Bank firmly believes that an effective response for vulnerable infants is of highest priority in our community. Forty percent of the people we help at the food bank are kids and we believe our community would be heartened to see that we are coming together to put our efforts and resources where our policies and research are. It’s our hope to bring the public, and other groups that support us, onside in the belief that our Health Unit is pivotal to us all, and that partnering with them would present an opening response to the chances of a better and healthier live for these children and their families. The SSFB program will be the key delivery mechanism, but what caused the coming together as organizations was our belief that our kids deserve better in such an affluent society,” says Jane Roy, Co-Executive Director, London Food Bank.
Written by: C. Soares
