Access to healthy food has been a long-term health priority, whether in its own right or as part of a health condition-specific priority like chronic disease since the 2007 Community Health Assessment. 

Food insecurity is defined as having limited access to the food you need to live a healthy life. Issues like income and employment are key related issues, but additional disparities exist based on where people live, transportation availability, housing instability, and living with certain health conditions. Food insecurity in Catawba County is trending down, but some significant disparities persist, negatively impacting Black and Latino residents, as well as children.

Some key partners in addressing food insecurity include healthcare providers, local soup kitchens, food pantries, churches, schools, local farmers markets and Senior Nutrition Services. Catawba County Social Services provides SNAP/EBT support in our community, which helps bridge the gap for many families. Catawba County, Newton-Conover and Hickory public school systems all address the needs of students who face food insecurity throughout the whole year with free and reduced-cost meals, and summer and weekend feeding programs and partnerships. All these partners help to bridge the gaps that are present and ensure there are available resources for those faced with food insecurity.

We’ve found that while the work that’s happened to improve access to healthy food in our community has been impactful, we have critical clarity informed by COVID-19 pandemic response and its impact on food insecurity. A defining perspective in this iteration is the commitment that increasing access to healthy food is the most critical foundation for improving nutrition and health.  

Catawba County Public Health facilitates a workgroup that is focused on Access to Healthy Foods. Workgroup strategies include: 

• Alignment with current Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant priorities to address culturally meaningful food and identify ethnic disparities throughout the county.
• Learning and partnership surrounding trauma-informed approaches and building meaningful relationships with community partners and members.
• Food access messaging to reduce stigma surrounding seeking out services, in regards to SNAP/FNS, WIC, school meals and other programs that offer nutrition services.

Actions taken so far include:

• Staff members from a local food pantry are participating in a Healthy Food Access Pantry Training Program. This program covers nutritionally and culturally appropriate foods, nutrition incentives, food safety, produce prescriptions and more. 
• Strengthened relationships within Child Nutrition departments in each of the three school districts by working together to compile data and raise awareness of what meals are being offered in schools. 
• Exploring the potential implementation of a produce prescription program.