Share ThisHighmark Bright Blue Futures is the organization’s charitable giving and community involvement program. This series provides in-depth articles on its work, community partners, and leaders as they advance their goals around Community Health and Community and Economic Resilience. In this three-part article, we explore how the program and its community partners are addressing the challenges of food insecurity as part of their focus on supporting economic stability for individuals and families.
Improving community health requires awareness of what will be effective in addressing the root causes of poor health, ongoing strategic investment — and lots of personal dedication. For example, our Highmark Bright Blue Futures program sees an essential role for community partnerships and investments that focus on supporting economic stability for individuals and families by reducing unemployment, food insecurity, and housing instability.
Through Highmark Bright Blue Futures, our company aligns closely with organizations that bring a deep understanding of local challenges and are on the frontlines of driving change. In this multi-part article, we’ll look at three community groups and programs that have received support through Highmark Bright Blue Futures as they address the root causes of food insecurity: Bright Spot Farm, Massachusetts Avenue Project, and Soul Fire Farm.
Food insecurity — the lack of consistent access to adequate food — is one of the most significant barriers to health faced by American families each day. A 2021 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report estimates that nearly 34 million Americans live in food-insecure households. Of these, the report found that Black and Hispanic families and those below the poverty line were disproportionally impacted.
The interconnectivity between systemic racism, poverty and other social issues is part of what makes food insecurity so challenging to overcome. Inequities underlying food insecurity are long-built and deeply ingrained into many communities. Because of this, both immediate and generational solutions are needed. Improvements must include sustained effort across multiple dimensions, including education as well as acts of service and financial support.
Through the Highmark Bright Blue Futures program, food insecurity is addressed with a multi-faceted, boots-on-the-ground approach. That includes investing in community gardens, farmers markets and grassroots organizations with a hyperlocal approach to improving access to healthy food. Past and ongoing contributions to funding and supporting food pantries and soup kitchens have provided communities with both emergency and day-to-day access to food. In tandem, continued partnership with food banks in multiple regions support distribution centers and reinforce the infrastructure critical to ensuring that underserved communities can get the food they need. Food banks have also raised funds through the Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community, and Highmark Health employees volunteer at food banks year-round.
Funding, volunteering and support from Highmark Bright Blue Futures is complemented by the Food as Medicine program led by Highmark Health’s Social Determinants of Health team. This initiative focuses on providing access to fresh and healthy foods that support the health of individuals across the organization’s four-state health coverage footprint, with special attention paid to the dietary needs of the most medically complex health plan members.
Highmark Bright Blue Futures is especially focused on tackling the underlying issues that cause food insecurity and identifying ways to ensure long-term, sustainable success. In particular, the program works with community organizations committed to enhancing community health through access to health care, economic stability, quality education, and improved social and physical environments.
“Companies dedicated to improving the overall health of their communities do well to support and learn from local nonprofit organizations,” says Highmark Health’s Kenya Boswell, senior vice president, Community Affairs. “Leveraging their unique programs and knowledge from deep within their communities is a way for companies to improve economic stability for individuals and families. Through our Highmark Bright Blue Futures program, we develop and nurture partnerships and relationships that meet people where they are to build healthier, stronger futures for all.”
Bright Spot Farm youth in the greenhouse
Delaware’s West End Neighborhood House, and specifically its Bright Spot Farm program, has received Highmark support in addressing food insecurity, starting with a BluePrints for the Community grant in 2020.
“We are happy to support Bright Spot Farm as we continue to develop partnerships that address food insecurity in Delaware,” explains Nick Moriello, president of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware. “The work they do is important because it not only teaches about healthy eating, but also creates access to nutritious food, all while creating opportunities for young people to engage with their community and develop life and leadership skills.”
Founded in 2011, Bright Spot Farm started as a small community garden on a single plot of land where local youths grew crops in buckets and sold their vegetables at a local farmers market. Due to demand, the program gradually outgrew its space and now operates on three acres of land in New Castle, Delaware. It has also added two high-tunnel greenhouse spaces to extend the growing season through winter.
Bright Spot Farm’s growth can certainly be tied to need. With roughly 10% of Delaware residents experiencing food insecurity, and 1 in 7 children facing hunger, programs like Bright Spot Farm are critically important. But part of what makes Bright Spot Farm unique is how it tackles food insecurity while also providing local and disadvantaged young adults with the tools to advance their lives through service to others.
Through partnerships with local high schools, students in Wilmington and other low-income zip codes can apply for hands-on work with Bright Spot Farm throughout the year. With meaningful work including growing, harvesting, and selling fresh vegetables at local farmers markets, they gain real-world experience and transferrable skills for their future.
Valuable time management, conflict resolution, and business leadership skills are built into the program, while the work itself instills a sense of responsibility. Participants can also gain ServSafe, customer service and ecological certifications, attend plant science classes, and learn about natural landscapes.
Bright Spot Farm’s paid employment training model also helps participants contribute to their household expenses, and tasks them with sharing their knowledge and skills with younger, incoming participants and the communities around them.
“The extensive training these youths receive allow them to then be leaders to their peers and really feel the responsibility of helping educate those who come in after them,” explains Ruth Arias, program director, Bright Spot Farm.
With a “train the trainers” mentality, participants are required to present their gained knowledge at local community centers and learn more about the issues facing their communities, including social justice and food insecurity.
The participants of the program not only learn how to grow their own food, but they also take home what they’ve grown and teach their families how to prepare and cook meals. By sharing their knowledge, they become community ambassadors and leaders who will reinvest in their community, as Bright Spot Farm has invested in them.
“Our ultimate goal is for the youth at Bright Spot Farm to become the change in their community through the power of food,” Arias says.
One of Bright Spot Farm’s most impactful efforts is a CSA (community supported agriculture) program, which provides fresh, local produce to low-income individuals and households throughout the region. The program has been especially helpful to senior citizens. With Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware’s support, Bright Spot Farm has taken fresh, healthy produce directly to low-income seniors and senior centers with its mobile produce market.
The refrigerated mobile unit “has been able to dramatically expand the number of individuals served and the frequency with which we serve them,” says Wes Davis, director of development, West End Neighborhood House. “Taking healthy foods directly to people who need them eliminates lack of transportation as a barrier to health.”
Low-income seniors are given vouchers to couple with SNAP benefits and other subsidies to receive fresh produce. Moreover, the mobile market provides the opportunity to select food according to their preferences. Allowing seniors to choose their food reinforces a sense of independence and autonomy that is sometimes missing in their lives, and further empowers them to make healthy decisions.
“Partnerships like the one with Highmark are critical to our success,” Arias explains. “We’re out in the community rather than expecting the community to come to us. By entering these communities that don’t have produce or corner stores, Bright Spot Farm can tackle food insecurity in a way that provides equitable access to the foods people need to stay healthy.”
As the program director for Bright Spot Farm, Ruth Arias manages, develops and is responsible for the implementation of the comprehensive young adult education, employment and training program for approximately 25 low-income youth (annually). She manages and supervises all staff (Farmer, Greenhouse Manager, Education Coordinator), ensuring quality service is provided to the program as well as providing the resources to her employees for staff development.
Ruth previously worked with the Delaware Center for Horticulture (DCH) as the community gardens coordinator. During her time at the DCH she worked and assisted over 30 community gardens in Wilmington, Delaware by providing them with the resources needed to begin and/or maintain their gardens and green spaces. She established the Garden Club afterschool and summer program at the Clarence Fraim Boys and Girls Club. Garden Club participants were 1st to 5th graders with an interest in nature and were taught gardening basics, seed and plant knowledge, as well as the importance of healthy eating. Ruth worked with the youth participating in the culinary arts program at the Wilmington Job Corps. The high school students were taught garden planning, succession planting, and basic gardening skills.
A "retired" State of Delaware employee, Ruth worked with the Division of Medicaid, Long Term Care unit for 15 years. During her employment she managed a team of senior social workers who assisted the elderly and disabled population in accessing the services and resources needed in order to get the care to remain in the community or in residential facilities.
Ruth’s hobbies include gardening, spending time in nature, hiking, and going to the mountains. She is a proud mother of two talented young adults and loves cooking for her family and friends on holidays and weekends.
Wes Davis holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (now Middlebury). He has worked in the nonprofit sector as a fundraiser since 2008, having served as the director of development for West End Neighborhood House in Wilmington for the last 11 years.
Wes served various terms on the board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Brandywine Chapter, including two years as treasurer. He currently serves on the Elder Board of Willowdale Chapel (a non-denominational church in Kennett Square, PA), as well as on the Programs and Finance and Development Committees of the Brandywine Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and Amanecer, respectively.
Additionally, Wes has participated in several professional development programs, including the University of Delaware’s Nonprofit Management program (2015) and Leadership Delaware (2019). He also holds several professional certifications, including the Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) and Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®).
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