TATAMY, Pa. – Making healthy choices easier for families right here at home: the Kellyn Foundation is bringing fresh food, education, and healthy habits into our neighborhoods year-round.

69 News Reporter Sydney Kay has the story from Tatamy with more on how they’re making a big impact, even during the winter months.

Co-founder and CEO Eric Ruth said the organization promotes health through its Healthy Neighborhood Immersion Strategy.  As part of the strategy, the foundation goes to schools and teach kids how to have a healthy lifestyle and help build school gardens.

47 schools have gardens that the foundation helped create, he said.

Ruth said the Kellyn Foundation operates the Eat Real Food Mobile Market, which takes local, fresh, accessible, affordable foods into neighborhoods, along with prepared meals. 

The organization conducts teaching kitchens, where it shows how people how to cook with savory spices and herbs, instead of sugar.

The foundation also does medically-backed intensive therapeutic lifestyle change programs for people in the community.

80% of your health is based on your environment, he said. Going into neighborhoods builds community support for people. Families get together, they help each other, they buy together, they talk to each other, he said.

“If the community starts leaning towards health, it’s contagious,” he said.

The foundation’s Executive Chef Andrew Pietrobono said the nonprofit tries to get as much of its food as it can from local farmers.

He said to find more information about what the foundation does and how to order food, people can go to www.kellyn.org.