UNC Flourish - UNC Center for Health Equity Research

UNC Flourish is a project of SHAC, the UNC student-run free health clinic. Flourish strives to equip low-income individuals and families with the knowledge, skills, and support they need to eat well. Our hope is that through cooking and nutrition classes as well as individualized wellness coaching, Flourish participants learn to incorporate healthy eating into their lives. As they serve their community, student volunteers will see first hand the challenges many individuals face to making healthy choices and will develop a greater level of understanding and knowledge that they can use to help others as future physicians, nutritionists, nurses, and more.

The Flourish Mission

The inequalities and injustices of poverty may not be solved within our lifetimes, but we can help others find health where they are planted.

Flourish Community Projects

Student Health Action Coalition

SHAC is our parent organization, and we are teaming up to provide quite a few nifty services, including a nutrition education table in the SHAC waiting room on Wednesday evenings, individual nutrition counseling, and motivational and informative food-centric text messages to patients.

Cooking Matters®

Through Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Cooking Matters, a program of Share Our Strength, volunteers lead interactive group classes packed with essential nutrition basics and cooking tips. The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle organizes these six-week classes for both kids and adults at various times.

Cooking Matters At The Store Tours®

Lead a tour through a grocery store! Stop at all the major food sections to teach participants how to get the most nutritional bang for their buck. Deliver a wealth of information that low-income shoppers can start using to improve their diets in only 90 minutes! Training is straightforward and you can sign up to lead as many tours as you want!

Wellness Coaching

You and another volunteer can be assigned to coach an individual or family requesting individualized nutrition recommendations and meal planning assistance. A splendid opportunity to grow together!

HOPE Cooks

Each Monday evening, HOPE Cooks volunteers prepare a healthy meal for women and children at the HomeStart residential facility using produce from their garden. Flourish volunteers will then eat dinner with residents at 6 pm and facilitate discussions about healthy eating and cooking, barriers to doing so, and ideas for overcoming these barriers.