The Latino Community Center (LCC) was recently awarded a $17,000 grant from UnidosUS to grow and foster a Comprando Rico y Sano grant program within Allegheny County. The grant is part of the national Comprando Rico y Sano initiative, supported by the Walmart Foundation, and is awarded to a handful of UnidosUS affiliates annually. The LCC is the first organization to be awarded this highly contested grant for Western Pennsylvania.
This unique grant will allow the LCC to expand their existing promotores de salud (community health workers) model, which educates Latinx families about culturally relevant nutritional information, provides cooking demonstrations, grocery cost-saving strategies, and assists with enrolling eligible families into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Additionally, the grant will support the LCC’s emergency food distribution program, which has
been providing weekly emergency food boxes to Latinx families impacted by COVID-19 since March 2020.
The Latino Community Center is honored and elated to be awarded the UnidosUS Comprando Rico y Sano grant, as it will help us to strategically build on our community health worker model, allowing us to better support Latinx families within our region,” says Rosamaria Cristello, the Latino Community Center’s Executive Director.
“Our team of promotores de salud are committed to advancing the health and wellbeing of Latinx families and our program fulfills a crucial need for food and nutrition assistance in our community.”
The Comprando Rico y Sano program will be offered through LCC’s Family Services team to interested Latinx families in Allegheny County. The LCC will enroll a minimum of 350 children and adults in federal nutrition programs by 2022 and will continue to distribute food boxes to at least 40 families per week in 2021.
For more information on this program and other services by the LCC, please visit www.latinocommunitycenter.org.
