Organic food devotee Jennifer Garner is doing her part to make sure everyone can enjoy the health benefits of fresh, nutritious foods.
On Tuesday, March 5, the actress announced that Once Upon a Farm, the organic baby food company she co-founded, would be the first organic, refrigerated baby food to be made available to WIC-eligible families. WIC is the USDA’s Women, Infants, Children program that aims “to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating and referrals to health care.”
The Save the Children ambassador, 46, couldn’t be more thrilled about her role in helping to bridge a socio-economic divide. “The last decade serving parents and children in rural poverty of the United States has taught me a few fundamental truths: Every mother loves her baby just as much as I love mine. No matter her background or circumstances — all mothers look at their newborn child and make a quiet promise: I’m going to do everything in my power to do right by you,” she stated in her blog post.
The company’s baby food bowls — which they designed specifically to meet government standards for the program — are now WIC-approved in Florida and West Virginia, Garner’s home state “feeding nearly 125,000 babies born into poverty,” the actress added. “It’s been a crazy learning process and a nutty road, and we still have 48 states to go! But it’s a huge step and something that makes me very happy and proud.”
Garner — who cofounded her company in 2017 with John Foraker, the former CEO of Annie’s — is dedicated to getting the word out about their healthy goods. On February 27, the mother of three stopped by a California Costco to personally hand out samples of the company’s cold-pressed smoothies to customers.
Garner herself is a client of nutritionist Kelly LeVeque, who recommends a “Fab Four” eating plan that involves consuming four categories of food at each meal: protein, fat, fiber and greens. As the Body Love author has told Us, the actress makes sustainable eating a priority in her own family’s life. “She has a garden and prioritizes getting healthy food and understands the process of regenerative farming, which is basically having your produce and your chickens all in the same area. It’s really good for the soil, it’s really good for the land and it’s really good for the health of the actual plants that you eat,” LeVeque explained. “What a golden child — she really is.”
