WCC to Facilitate Faith Food Action Network in Milwaukee
Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment Funds Project at $249,883
The Wisconsin Council of Churches (WCC) is pleased to announce that our proposal, Faith Food Action Network: Improving Mental Health Through Mutual Aid, has been funded for the next twenty-four months through an Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment Community-Led Momentum Grant. The initiative will establish mutual aid groups focused on food equity in predominantly African-American churches in southeast Wisconsin. The anticipated impact of these projects is to strengthen intra-church, inter-church, and church-neighborhood networks such that participating households have greater food security with dignity.
WCC staff members for this project include Rev. Breanna Illéné, Mr. Eyon Alexander Biddle Sr., and Ms. Angela Hicks. Mr. Biddle and Ms. Hicks most recently worked on Vaccine Community Outreach with the WCC during the most intense years of the COVID pandemic and will leverage their existing community health knowledge and relationships in Greater Milwaukee toward the success of this project. The principal investigator is Dr. Katherine Quinn, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Quinn has led numerous public health projects to improve health equity and will guide program evaluation and data analysis. This team will work with six local church groups to convene Food Equity Teams; facilitate discussion, creativity and mutuality; make connections and strengthen local efforts.
Project evaluations will consider food security, mental health, community connectedness, and innovation. As a mutual aid project in alignment with the core values of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, the effort is designed to decenter the work of the WCC project partners and amplify the voices of local participants.
About AHW
The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) is a statewide health improvement philanthropy propelling promising work and ideas in health research, health care education, and community health initiatives to improve health and advance health equity in Wisconsin today, and for generations to come. Established by the Medical College of Wisconsin to steward a generous gift from Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin, AHW has invested over $350 million in more than 750 projects since 2004.
