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If you’ve had a chance to follow along on the blog in the last couple of months, you may have already learned how to create your very own urban container garden and what you can plant in it. This month, if your garden is reaching full bloom, the next question is: “What can I do with all this food?”

It’s National Nutrition Month and we honor the culinary imagination it takes to make food go further with what’s on hand. This month, we’re featuring our Carrot Cake Pancakes an example of a way to reduce food waste and provide a fun, nutritious meal.

Providing healthy food to those who need it is an essential part of the food bank’s work, but it’s not the whole story. Pairing that food with education is also important so that people have the ingredients and knowledge to make nutritious, budget-friendly meals. Creating and distributing those recipes, each of which feeds a family of four for $7 or less, is where the food bank’s Nutrition Education team comes in.

The Capital Area Food Bank works with farms all over the region to procure nutritious produce for our partners and programs, so that ultimately our community has better access to healthy foods. One of these partners is Miller Farms.

“Every night when I go to sleep, I’m eager for tomorrow to come, so I can get back to work,” says Joyce Seamans, manager of a food pantry operated by Adventist Community Services of Greater Washington (ACSGW) in partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank. “Every day, I get to help resilient women of many different backgrounds gain access to healthy, nutritious food.”

Katherine Donnelly is our nutrition education coordinator. She works with our partners and many of our neighbors in the community, teaching them about nutritious food options for people dealing with strapped budgets. As part of National Nutrition Month, we asked Katherine to tell us about her role here.

It’s almost spring, but temperatures can still be cold. Warm yourself up with this filling recipe. It’s a heart-healthy recipe, and it’s quite affordable—serving six people for $6.40.

We asked the CAFB’s Nutrition Education Coordinator about her top five quick nutrition tips for living a health lifestyle and eating a nutritious diet while on a budget. This is what she had to say.