18 Reasons

Programs

1. At our Community Cooking School, community residents can take basic cooking classes, attend community dinners, and learn about food, cooking, and social issues surrounding food. Over 2,000 people attended classes and programming at our Community Cooking School in 2023. Classes are offered on a fee-for-service basis, with scholarships and sliding scale fees offered for each class. All proceeds from the classes benefit the Cooking Matters Program.

   $830,253 spent$523,583 earned by the program
   28% of program spending

2. Food as Medicine helps low-income Medi-Cal patients with diet sensitive conditions learn cooking, nutrition, and household planning and budgeting skills that help them take control of their health. For up to twelve months, patients receive weekly boxes of home-delivered healthy groceries, sourced from local farms and grocery partners. Each week, patients attend an online cooking and nutrition class led by a primary care doctor and an 18 Reasons staff member. The program is a partnership between 18 Reasons and Contra Costa Health as part of the new statewide CalAIM initiative to use Medi-Cal funds to address social determinants of health, including food and housing. Graduates of our Food as Medicine program reported lower blood sugar levels, lower BMI, and less dependance on medication to control their diabetes.

   $796,205 spent$1,052,814 earned by the program
   26% of program spending

3. Our Cooking Matters program offers free cooking and nutrition classes to low-income adults, children, and families. Each series of classes meet once a week for six weeks. Each class is two hours long, and is taught by a team consisting of a chef, a nutrition instructor, and a class assistant. We seek out volunteers with skills in cooking and nutrition to teach these classes, and we also train and employ graduates of our Cooking Matters as peer health educators to fill these roles. Cooking Matters classes are held at locations that offer other services to low-income families, such as shelters, schools, clinics, community centers, and subsidized housing sites. These agencies and organizations recruit participants for the classes, and we bring the instructors, food, curricula, and cooking equipment. At the end of each six-week series, we conduct an evaluation that measures positive behavior changes including increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, and an increased use of nutrition skills and knowledge when making decisions about food. In 2021, we conducted 86 six-week series of classes, taught by approximately 300 volunteers and 18 peer health educators, at 51 different…

   $778,501 spent$136,854 earned by the program
   26% of program spending

4. Nourishing Pregnancy is a 16 week program for Black and Latinx birthing parents during the last trimester of pregnancy and first months postpartum. Classes, workshops, cooking and nutrition education, peer support, and free groceries work together to improve health and well being for parent and child. Nourishing Pregnancy launched in 2021 to address the disparities and urgent needs of BIPOC birthers in our community. In San Francisco, 20% of Black/27% of Latinx women experience food insecurity during pregnancy, compared to almost 0% for white women. A Black infant is twice as likely to be born prematurely (14% versus 7% for White infants). Black women are more than three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications as white women, regardless of their income or education. Black, Latinx, and Pacific Islander women are also more likely to experience gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and peripartum mood disorders including postpartum depression. As a community nonprofit at the intersection of food and health,18 Reasons is uniquely positioned to deliver both cooking and nutrition education and a structure for maternal health classes and workshops. Over 16 weeks,…

   $566,012 spent
   19% of program spending

5. Fiscally spoored organizations.

   $44,148 spentof which $40,000 as grants
   1% of program spending

The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,015,119.