Since Leah’s Pantry was founded in 2006, incorporating community perspectives into our curricula and program delivery has been central to our vision of communities where everyone can cultivate a healthy relationship with food and their bodies. Our programs and products are designed to ensure all people have access to healthy food and feel competent in preparing easy, nutritious meals for themselves and their families.

We are passionate about educating community leaders with the knowledge and tools to transform the lives of people in their communities using nourishing, trauma-sensitive solutions. In 2024, we more fully integrated leaders and program participants into program and curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation processes. Our intent was to elevate community voices for impact, and these processes supported our efforts to listen, learn, and respond to the communities we serve.

One of our longest-standing partnerships is with BRIDGE Housing, dating back to 2007. Through this collaboration, Leah’s Pantry has conducted cooking and nutrition workshops for individuals of all ages at various affordable housing sites. Last year, we reached over 5,000 residents, delivering more than 100 nutrition classes and 150 food distributions. Our food navigators at these sites assess community needs and ensure that our workshops and food distributions effectively address those needs.

In January 2024, we expanded our community work in San Francisco, responding to data from the San Francisco Food Security Task Force that highlighted resource gaps in Bayview, Hunter’s Point, and Treasure Island. To incorporate a more fully participatory process, Community Engagement Specialist Melinda Burrus, a San Francisco native from Bayview-Hunters Point, worked with neighborhood residents to collect and analyze data and form a resident advisory council to support nutrition security efforts.

From February to October, Leah’s Pantry facilitated a collaborative process with local and state implementers to co-develop an equity framework for California’s SNAP-Ed program, CalFresh Healthy Living. By creating a structure for local implementers to drive framework development, we ensured the framework reflects the unique experiences and needs of diverse communities, prioritizing community impact.

We also sought to make trauma-informed work more accessible through our journal and podcast. We published the first full issue of the Journal of Trauma-Informed Community Health, Nutrition, and Physical Activity, an open-source journal dedicated to uplifting community voices. The journal supports new authors in publishing peer-reviewed articles, including a reflection section where authors share ideas about how they can apply trauma-informed approaches to their work. Our Stocking the Pantry podcast released ten new episodes, including the popular, “Addressing Body Image In Nutrition Education,” featuring Jennie Altman, MS, RDN, from AZ Health Zone (Arizona’s SNAP-Ed program), discussing how to combat anti-fat bias in SNAP-Ed programming and messaging. This year, we expanded the podcast’s reach by making it available on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Leah’s Pantry continues to expand its training offerings and partnerships, with first-time trainings in North Carolina, Tennessee, Nebraska, Montana, Georgia, and Texas—bringing our total state partnerships to 30. We also piloted five new curricula, each shaped by input from community-based organizations and appropriate audiences to ensure relevance and effectiveness. One exciting addition is Body Connection, a movement curriculum designed to complement our existing nutrition education curricula. This unique curriculum fosters body literacy and mindful movement to deepen participants’ understanding of how movement and nutrition together nourish our bodies.

Thank you to our board members, funders, partners, and clients for your continued support. Your contributions make our work possible. As we move into the new year, we are excited to continue elevating community voices for impact and seeing what we can accomplish together.