In 2020, the Walmart Foundation awarded grants to 11 community-based projects offering innovative approaches to supporting healthy food access. The grants focused on initiatives that improve access to fresh foods for regions and populations experiencing disproportionately high rates of food insecurity. The Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA), one of the 11 grantees, focused on providing food grown by HAFA’s Hmong farmers to low-income immigrant communities and child care centers in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Key features of the initiative included providing Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes to families and distributing fresh produce to home-based child care programs run by Hmong providers in order to incorporate fresh and culturally appropriate produce into meals served to younger children. We found that centering the voices and opinions of community members can improve the cultural relevancy and reach of efforts designed to facilitate healthy food access.