Nutrition education is an important part of any long-term strategy to end hunger. Working with community centers, churches, schools, after-school programs, and other public service agencies, Operation Food Search conducts classes on nutrition, healthy cooking, food safety, and food budgeting.
Using a respected and proven approach developed by Share Our Strength and nationally sponsored Tyson Foods, Inc., Operation Frontline mobilizes volunteer chefs and nutritionists to teach people skills they need to make healthy food choices on a low-income budget.
The class sessions are provided to adults, teens, children, and families. A health specific curriculum is also provided teaching proper nutrition to those living with HIV and AIDS.
The Operation Frontline program has reached out to the community through collaborations with agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, Gateway Greening, Head Start, the St. Louis City Department of Public Heath, YMCA, and Food Outreach.
While participants walk away from each session with new skills and a grocery bag of ingredients to replicate the recipe prepared in class, they also walk away with a sense of community, a revived motivation to make dietary changes for their families, and maybe even an interest in pursuing a career in the culinary profession.
One participant commented
"Now I think about foods I give my family. Before (Operation Frontline) I didn't know you had to have different foods each day like fruit, vegetables, and milk."
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