Provident Health Foundation

The Provident Health Foundation was established in 2019 when Bay Area Medical Center, the local hospital, was fully acquired by Advocate Aurora Health. As part of that transition, Aurora provided $25 million to establish the new foundation, which is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of residents in Menominee and Marinette communities. 

 

John Hofer became the foundation’s Executive Director in 2019, and Madison Darling joined as Grants and Collaborations Officer in 2022. 

 

After thorough research and a comprehensive community needs assessment, the foundation identified three key challenges that would guide its grantmaking: substance misuse, mental health, and childhood obesity. 

 

When addressing childhood obesity, the Provident Health Foundation decided to focus its efforts on prevention and promotion. 

 

“When you are looking at the realm of prevention and promotion, a lot of the funding is directed toward children and changing habits, behaviors, and attitudes, along with education,” Hofer says. “So we started out very basic, writing grants that promoted educating children on things as simple as what different fruits and vegetables look like.”

 

The two main components of fighting childhood obesity are healthy eating and active living. As the foundation honed its strategy, it focused on increasing access not only to food in general but specifically to healthy food. 

 

“Healthy food, education, and access have really become a significant area of receipt of our funding,” Darling says. 

 

From the beginning, the foundation quickly realized that they could write checks larger than most local organizations were ready to handle. Managing $500 is very different from managing $50,000, and it requires a completely different internal infrastructure. Sustaining that programming after receiving such funding also demands significant capacity. 

 

Recognizing this, the foundation took on a role that went beyond giving money. Hofer and Darling began working with local organizations to strengthen their operational and governance structures so they could successfully use grant funds. 

 

When the foundation began helping local schools, they learned that many kids in the community rely on school meals for their food each and every day. 

 

“Schools aren’t simply educating anymore,” Darling says. “They are also a main food source for a significant number of children in our community. When looking at how to make sure that this food source is as nutritious as possible, we came across Wello and their farm-to-school work.”

 

The Provident Health Foundation contracted Wello to bring its successful farm-to-school programming structure to Menominee and Marinette communities. They found five pilot schools, and Wello has helped the foundation to discover successful and effective school programs. 

 

For example, the foundation funded hydroponic grow stations in several schools to grow vegetables such as lettuce. The students manage these stations and develop a deeper connection to the food they eat. 

 

While the agriculture community is strong in both Menominee and Marinette counties, the farms are not connected in a way that makes it easy to meet large-scale production needs. Through Wello, the Provident Health Foundation was introduced to Seasonal Harvest. Since, the foundation has funded various initiatives that have relied on the fresh produce from Seasonal Harvest. 

 

One example is through Wello’s mobile farmers market, where students can taste different fruits and vegetables. The foundation has now funded this farmers’ market a number of times. 

 

They have also relied on produce from Seasonal Harvest for the Apple Crunch Day. Over 4,000 apples were delivered to local schools as part of the farm-to-school initiative for a healthy snack. 

 

“Up to this point, the schools have mostly been operating independently,” Darling says. “We saw that with the grow stations, when we funded them and told the schools exactly where to purchase them, they followed through and used them. That showed us the value of having structure and coordination. Now, we’re working to build that same kind of infrastructure with Seasonal and Wello, so that eventually schools have a one-stop shop for healthy snacks.”

 

For Hofer and Darling, an exciting piece of this partnership is how Seasonal Harvest and Wello are connecting with local farms in the two counties. By linking those farms with the program, they are not only improving access to fresh, nutritious food in schools but also supporting local economic development. 

 

“I also appreciate how strategically innovative Seasonal and Wello are,” Darling says. “I think they really look at best practice versus past practice and keep a community strengths mindset at the forefront. I just really appreciate how genuinely they care for the community with things like the food resiliency, the food systems, and the people behind them. For everyone, from farmer to customer to recipients of the food, it really is just a wonderful delight to work with them.”

 

Beyond their partnership with Wello and Seasonal Harvest, the Provident Health Foundation supports countless local initiatives to improve the health and well-being of the area. 

 

An example is the backpack program. Each Friday, participating children are sent home with a bag of food that gets them through the weekend. When the foundation was first approached about funding this opportunity, the bags did not include healthy options, so the Provident Health Foundation worked with the program to include healthy foods for children.  

 

Another project involved a snack program at a local school. The school was offering sugary snacks like donuts. The foundation helped the school switch to healthier options like bananas, apples, and cheese sticks. Students love the new snacks, and the teachers are happy too, because students are focusing much better without the sugar highs. 

 

The foundation has also funded a cooking club that teaches students how to prepare healthy meals and then sends home cooking tools with the participants because, through their research, that is one barrier to cooking at home: not having proper cooking utensils. 

 

The work the Provident Health Foundation is doing is changing the Menominee and Marinette communities. They have a vision of health for the counties, and are tirelessly working to achieve this. They are proud to collaborate with incredible people to bring this dream to life. 

 

“We do not want to do this on our own. We can’t do it on our own. It’s too big. These problems have been created over generations, and so we’re trying to bring more funders and more organizations into the fold to support this effort,” Hofer says. We need more hands on deck to help us, both in terms of food insecurity, mental health, and substance misuse.”

 

If you would like to learn more about the Provident Health Foundation, explore their website at providenthealth.org.