Health and Nutrition
Having food to eat, whether the food was purchased at the store or grown at home, is not the end of food security. A person’s body must be in good physical condition in order to properly use the food – this is called food utilization, the ability to use food efficiently in order to live to the fullest.

For health program activities, Food for the Hungry focuses on the more vulnerable members of the family – pregnant and lactating mothers and children under the age of five, with a special focus on children two years and under.

Education
Food for the Hungry (FH) provides health and nutrition education to mothers of young children through Care Groups. Using a curriculum that addresses the current unhelpful behaviors and harmful beliefs, FH promotes positive behavior change, training mothers to apply Essential Nutrition Actions and Essential Hygiene Actions, helping children become healthier and better able to utilize the food that they receive.

Other activities promoted by the Care Groups include:

• Encouraging dietary diversity and the use of locally grown foods through cooking practices, recipe competitions, home visits, and school feeding programs.
• Improving household and community ability to prevent, diagnose, and manage common childhood diseases that exacerbate malnutrition.
• Growth monitoring and promotion, where the health worker tells the mother whether or not her child has achieved the minimal monthly weight gain target.

Capacity building
Realizing that behavior doesn’t necessarily change overnight, Food for the Hungry (FH) is committed to building the capacity of local Community Health Workers (CHW) and coordinating with the national Ministry of Health (MOH). These local volunteers and government workers remain in place long after FH has moved on to continue promoting healthy behaviors within the community that lead to sustainable behavior change.