MILWAUKEE — At Sankofa Village Healing and Wellness Training Center, Vanessa Johnson is creating a nurturing environment. It's what she wishes she had when she was pregnant.
"Having this opportunity in this moment to be able to support the families in the way that I'm able to really allows me to give what I wasn't given," Johnson said.
In addition to being a mother of three, Vanessa is a registered nurse, a doula and yoga instructor. She said it's common to hear about happy, joyful birth stories. But with patients and clients she saw, there was often grief and trauma attached to those experiences, especially for black women.
"We see all those stories or those images in the media where it's oh you're welcoming this new baby and it's such a beautiful experience and you have a husband and a wife and you know this big kumbaya experience. For many women, especially Black women in particular, that's not our story," Johnson shared."
Now she's using her knowledge and personal experience to help support expecting BIPOC moms before, during and after birth. For her, it starts with nourishment.
"It really started once I started seeing the disconnect with food access and the perinatal experience," Johnson said. "We have so many different things to think about during pregnancy and birth, food should not be one of them."
She connected with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and together they launched the Nurturing Collaborative earlier this year.
According to the Feeding America website, "this program seeks to increase equity and food security by ensuring access to food and other resources that provide a nurturing environment for parent and child."
Families registered in the program receive what Johnson calls nourishment boxes every month full of healthy foods and recipes for those foods. The food and recipes are curated by Johnson's mom who is a nutritionist.
The program is free and the boxes are delivered directly to homes. In addition to the food boxes, Johnson also wanted to make sure families felt well-supported through pregnancy and birth.
"We curated the nurturing boxes. Those boxes have things in them like affirmation cards, reflection journals, bath bombs, bath salts, we have candles," Johnson said.
The program also provides workshops for families focus on mental health, self care, access to doulas, nutrition and connections to community organizations.
"That's really where the heart of the Nurturing Collaborative lies for me and the families," Johnson said.
Families interested in signing up can click here.
You can also support the organization by clicking the link above.
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