Community Food Bank of Grand Junction WIC CIAO Project

The Community Food Bank of Grand Junction’s (CFB) project aims to increase awareness and participation in the WIC program among households with infants and young children living in Mesa County, Colorado.

CFB will expand partnerships with child care organizations and agencies focused on reaching families with young children.

Innovative outreach activities include integration with CFB’s food pantry bilingual resource navigation to provide participants with SNAP/WIC benefit program application assistance and nutrition exploration activities, such as food demonstrations and tastings in collaboration with community partners.

CFB will identify current WIC participants to join and lead project efforts including their Community Advisory Board, participating in focus groups, and ultimately in the creation of rolling WIC consultant roles to consistently review and advise project materials, efforts, and activities.

Lessons learned from CFB’s project will be transferable to other food banks looking to integrate WIC outreach into current programming and engaging WIC participants with lived expertise.