Grant Spotlight- Hunter Industries

Thanks to the generosity of Hunter Industries, Neighborhood’s prenatal patients will benefit from new nutritional education demonstration materials and sponsored staff training.  The goal is to help our expectant mothers achieve healthier birth outcomes and a lifetime of better overall health and wellness for both mother and child.

Our prenatal program considers that women in low-income households with less access to resources are more likely to maintain poor diets during pregnancy than those with higher incomes due in part to an inadequate understanding of nutritional requirements and limited ability to purchase healthy foods.   Food insecurity, present or past, can also lead to a preference for cheap, high sodium, low-quality foods. 

Nutrition education and counselling helps expectant mothers achieve optimum weight gain, reduce the risk of anemia in late pregnancy, increase birth weight, and lower the risk of hypertension, gestational diabetes, and preterm delivery.

According to Leslie Munoz, Director of Operations & Women’s Health Services, “Simple exercises such as demonstrating portion size and good food choices that consider the ethnic and cultural preferences of the expectant mother can make a huge difference.  We are so excited to have access to new teaching tools to help our patients enjoy healthier pregnancies.”

This award is one of the many difference-makers that local foundations and corporations support, helping Neighborhood provide quality, equitable and accessible healthcare to all.