Women United Can … grow our resources!

 

(visit our event photo gallery and watch our event video!)

Dispelling the myth that eating healthy can’t be fun, Women United, the newly formed affinity group of United Way of Greater Waterbury, held its first social on July 14 at Hawk Ridge Winery in Watertown, raising more than $10,000 toward helping our local food pantries implement the Supporting Wellness at Pantries (SWAP) program.


SWAP uses the familiar colors of the stoplight (red, yellow, green) to help everyone make better decisions when accessing food.  Thanks to this program, individuals and families can gain a nutritional boost during tough times and food pantries can learn how to better organize food to make it easier for clients to make those healthy choices.

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SWAP ranks food based on levels of saturated fat, sodium, and sugars because these nutrients are linked with increased risk of chronic diseases. By ranking food nutritionally, food banks and food pantries can talk with food donors about donating healthier food and can promote nutritious food for guests who visit food pantries.


The almost 100 women attending the social learned that SWAP was developed in 2016 by the Institute for Hunger Research & Solutions at Foodshare/CT Food Bank.  Women United also learned how SWAP helps increase the supply and demand for healthy food in food banks and pantries. Guests have decreased their unhealthy choices by 7% with the use of SWAP and are seeing an 11% increase in the health of their diets.

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Women in the Greater Waterbury area are joining Women United to make a collective impact in our 10-town region.  A wide variety of leaders, business owners, and talented women are educating themselves on the issues facing our community as they provide their insights, volunteer efforts, and dollars to help others, which ends up helping everyone.

 

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Mother Nature herself is an honorary member since she provided a warm, light breeze to ensure that the setting overlooking the hills of Litchfield County was perfect while music played and Women United tasted local wines and dined on an assortment of treats from D'Amelio's Italian Eatery in Waterbury, complements of Culinary Sponsor Hubbard-Hall.

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Thanks also to our Media Sponsor WORX, Floral Sponsor Webster Bank, Wine Sponsor Ion Bank, Décor Sponsor Savings Bank of Danbury, Invitation Sponsor Bank of America, and Signage Sponsor Thomaston Savings Bank.

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The first social was enormously fun, and more is yet to come!  Women United is bringing people together and focused on making sure everyone in the Greater Waterbury area has reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food needed to live an active, healthy life.  Don’t miss out on the next Women United event and your opportunity to help others through United Way.  Visit our event photo gallery by CLICKING HERE (and don't forget to give our Women United FB page a 'like' while there!) and watch the highlight video by CLICKING HERE!

To learn more about Women United contact Tomeka Cole at [email protected], or if you're ready to join CLICK HERE!

CLICK TO LEARN MORE
 

SWAP is fully aligned with the Healthy Eating Research Nutrition Guidelines for Ranking Charitable Food System adopted by Feeding America, and is a suite of tools and resources to operationalize these guidelines in food banks and food pantries.  As you shop for food, you can use the SWAP system to improve your food choices and therefore your health!