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Greater Later: Healthy Faith and Nutritious Food in Mercer County, New Jersey
Sheena's motto is, “Life gets greater later and better in time.” As someone who grew up in and out of foster homes, saw family members struggle with addiction and incarceration, became a teenage mother, and raised two boys (now 21 and 16) on her own, Sheena’s optimism and faith in the future have been well-earned.
Along the way, she leaned into the family life she’d never known growing up, discovered she was a natural nurturer of children, established her own home, went to community college to study as a legal secretary, and became a case manager for social service organizations and agencies within Mercer County, New Jersey. Coordinating services to help people in need is work that she loves doing and finds deeply fulfilling.
In the fall of 2023, Sheena discovered she was pregnant again. The news was a big surprise but she embraced pregnancy like every other opportunity in her life, optimistically and by taking matters into her own hands. She got in touch with her health plan to start prenatal visits and to find out if there were any resources or services available for support. It turned out she qualified for a new nutrition program for food-insecure pregnant women offered through her plan by NourishedRx.
That was lucky for her because she’d also recently discovered that she’d developed allergies to nuts, dairy, and genetically modified foods. This made getting the right level of nourishment during pregnancy an additional challenge.
Raised to Love Nutritious Food
Sheena’s understanding of the importance of healthy nutrition goes way back.
When she was five years old, she was sent from Trenton, New Jersey, where she was born, across the Delaware River to Morrisville, Pennsylvania, to live with a great-aunt on her mother’s side of the family. Her Great Aunt had moved to Pennsylvania from South Carolina to work at the local steel mill. Her warm and welcoming house was a refuge for Sheena who’d already experienced a lot of chaos and tumult in her young life.
As a southerner, Sheena’s great-aunt prized fresh food and healthy meals. Every week, they would make the trip to the local farmer’s market to buy fruit and vegetables. Sheena loved okra, corn, snap peas, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and other nutrient-rich vegetables. Whatever produce they couldn’t eat, they steamed and froze for winter.
Their snacks were never store-bought, and even their desserts were homemade—from cookies to blueberry pies and peach cobblers. It was Sheena’s job to help out in the kitchen, so she learned how to cook and keep a pristine space. The time spent making meals bonded her to her great-aunt.
Unfortunately, Sheena’s great-aunt developed health problems and needed surgery, which forced her to retire from her job and move in with someone who could care for her. So, Sheena’s time with her came to an end during middle school.
For the next few years, she lived in a series of foster homes where eating habits and access to healthy food varied from family to family. When she left the foster care system at 17, she was able to live independently and use her grocery budget on more fresh fruits and vegetables like collard greens, sweet potatoes, and cabbage, and lean meats like chicken while using her cooking knowledge to prepare tasty meals. Her great-aunt’s care and devotion to healthy eating turned out to be a life-long lesson.
Special Delivery
Raising her boys and advancing in her career as a case manager brought her a lot of fulfillment but it wasn’t always easy to eat healthy, home-cooked meals. Work was demanding, her oldest boy played competitive basketball many nights a week, and it was often hard to get home early enough on weeknights to prepare a nutritious dinner. Some evenings, the family barely had time for anything more than a pot of spaghetti before homework and bed.
It was also difficult to get to the grocery store more than once every three weeks, so she often chopped up and froze fresh vegetables to make them last longer. And her grocery budget didn’t always stretch far enough, so there were times when she needed to visit local food pantries to get the items she needed. But she made sure her boys ate well and that Sunday dinners remained the kind of special occasion that her great-aunt would have appreciated.
When Sheena found out she was pregnant, she saw it as a chance to enjoy the wonderful experience of being a new mother all over again, but she also knew that it would be incredibly challenging to manage pregnancy, birth, and raising a newborn on her own. Her health plan care manager- who was a big help on many health-related questions throughout her pregnancy - referred her to the NourishedRx program. Sheena immediately asked to be enrolled.
The program starts between the 20th and 27th week of pregnancy with groceries and prepared meal deliveries. It continues until 8 weeks postpartum. In addition, it includes nutrition education, access to online nutrition articles, cooking tips, and connections to local community resources through 16 weeks postpartum.
Sheena was impressed from the outset by the welcome package and online resources. She was introduced to foods she hadn’t tried before like eggplant and quinoa and found it very helpful how groceries and recipes matched her taste and personal health needs. Because she was already a good cook, she didn’t need the prepared meals, but she loved receiving groceries and fresh produce from Fairgrown Farm.
“It was wonderful to have fresh fruits and vegetables delivered right to your doorstep,” Sheena says, “along with lean meats like boneless skinless chicken thighs, salmon, and ground turkey. It was all so much healthier than the kind of food I could buy on my own at that time, all loaded with sodium and saturated fats. I felt like a kid at Christmas when the deliveries showed up every two weeks.”
Sheena’s younger son was also amazed at the quality of the food and meals. He enjoyed new meals like eggplant parmesan with marinara sauce or vegetables and chicken stir-fried in avocado oil with minced garlic for dinner and real oatmeal for breakfast. He told Sheena he felt like they’d enrolled in a fitness or bodybuilder program.
Sheena also appreciated her nutrition coach, Christine, who helped guide her through the questions she had about her new allergies and nutrition needs. In each trimester, Sheena’s appetite and health issues changed. Some foods would suddenly cause her heartburn and indigestion, so they were at risk of going to waste. Christine always had great suggestions or ideas for altering her diet (like adding fresh ginger to relieve her heartburn) so that she could continue to eat healthily.
And then came her little girl. Sheena’s baby was born by C-section in May, healthy, bright-eyed, and with beautiful hair. Sheena named her Faith, in keeping with her own faith in the wonder and joy that life can bring.
Today, Sheena feels grateful for the support that the NourishedRx program provided, not just in terms of the nutrition knowledge and budgeting strategies that continued to help her after the program ended, but even emotionally. Her coaches were always there for her, giving her mental support and someone to talk to whenever she was overwhelmed or needed to vent. She wishes that kind of help could be available to every new mother who needs it. In the meantime, she’s enjoying the walks she gets to go on with Faith in the warm weather with the birds chirping in the trees, knowing that she and her family have the healthy food they need to thrive during what otherwise could have been a very challenging time.
Sheena's motto is, “Life gets greater later and better in time.” As someone who grew up in and out of foster homes, saw family members struggle with addiction and incarceration, became a teenage mother, and raised two boys (now 21 and 16) on her own, Sheena’s optimism and faith in the future have been well-earned.
Along the way, she leaned into the family life she’d never known growing up, discovered she was a natural nurturer of children, established her own home, went to community college to study as a legal secretary, and became a case manager for social service organizations and agencies within Mercer County, New Jersey. Coordinating services to help people in need is work that she loves doing and finds deeply fulfilling.
In the fall of 2023, Sheena discovered she was pregnant again. The news was a big surprise but she embraced pregnancy like every other opportunity in her life, optimistically and by taking matters into her own hands. She got in touch with her health plan to start prenatal visits and to find out if there were any resources or services available for support. It turned out she qualified for a new nutrition program for food-insecure pregnant women offered through her plan by NourishedRx.
That was lucky for her because she’d also recently discovered that she’d developed allergies to nuts, dairy, and genetically modified foods. This made getting the right level of nourishment during pregnancy an additional challenge.
Raised to Love Nutritious Food
Sheena’s understanding of the importance of healthy nutrition goes way back.
When she was five years old, she was sent from Trenton, New Jersey, where she was born, across the Delaware River to Morrisville, Pennsylvania, to live with a great-aunt on her mother’s side of the family. Her Great Aunt had moved to Pennsylvania from South Carolina to work at the local steel mill. Her warm and welcoming house was a refuge for Sheena who’d already experienced a lot of chaos and tumult in her young life.
As a southerner, Sheena’s great-aunt prized fresh food and healthy meals. Every week, they would make the trip to the local farmer’s market to buy fruit and vegetables. Sheena loved okra, corn, snap peas, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and other nutrient-rich vegetables. Whatever produce they couldn’t eat, they steamed and froze for winter.
Their snacks were never store-bought, and even their desserts were homemade—from cookies to blueberry pies and peach cobblers. It was Sheena’s job to help out in the kitchen, so she learned how to cook and keep a pristine space. The time spent making meals bonded her to her great-aunt.
Unfortunately, Sheena’s great-aunt developed health problems and needed surgery, which forced her to retire from her job and move in with someone who could care for her. So, Sheena’s time with her came to an end during middle school.
For the next few years, she lived in a series of foster homes where eating habits and access to healthy food varied from family to family. When she left the foster care system at 17, she was able to live independently and use her grocery budget on more fresh fruits and vegetables like collard greens, sweet potatoes, and cabbage, and lean meats like chicken while using her cooking knowledge to prepare tasty meals. Her great-aunt’s care and devotion to healthy eating turned out to be a life-long lesson.
Special Delivery
Raising her boys and advancing in her career as a case manager brought her a lot of fulfillment but it wasn’t always easy to eat healthy, home-cooked meals. Work was demanding, her oldest boy played competitive basketball many nights a week, and it was often hard to get home early enough on weeknights to prepare a nutritious dinner. Some evenings, the family barely had time for anything more than a pot of spaghetti before homework and bed.
It was also difficult to get to the grocery store more than once every three weeks, so she often chopped up and froze fresh vegetables to make them last longer. And her grocery budget didn’t always stretch far enough, so there were times when she needed to visit local food pantries to get the items she needed. But she made sure her boys ate well and that Sunday dinners remained the kind of special occasion that her great-aunt would have appreciated.
When Sheena found out she was pregnant, she saw it as a chance to enjoy the wonderful experience of being a new mother all over again, but she also knew that it would be incredibly challenging to manage pregnancy, birth, and raising a newborn on her own. Her health plan care manager- who was a big help on many health-related questions throughout her pregnancy - referred her to the NourishedRx program. Sheena immediately asked to be enrolled.
The program starts between the 20th and 27th week of pregnancy with groceries and prepared meal deliveries. It continues until 8 weeks postpartum. In addition, it includes nutrition education, access to online nutrition articles, cooking tips, and connections to local community resources through 16 weeks postpartum.
Sheena was impressed from the outset by the welcome package and online resources. She was introduced to foods she hadn’t tried before like eggplant and quinoa and found it very helpful how groceries and recipes matched her taste and personal health needs. Because she was already a good cook, she didn’t need the prepared meals, but she loved receiving groceries and fresh produce from Fairgrown Farm.
“It was wonderful to have fresh fruits and vegetables delivered right to your doorstep,” Sheena says, “along with lean meats like boneless skinless chicken thighs, salmon, and ground turkey. It was all so much healthier than the kind of food I could buy on my own at that time, all loaded with sodium and saturated fats. I felt like a kid at Christmas when the deliveries showed up every two weeks.”
Sheena’s younger son was also amazed at the quality of the food and meals. He enjoyed new meals like eggplant parmesan with marinara sauce or vegetables and chicken stir-fried in avocado oil with minced garlic for dinner and real oatmeal for breakfast. He told Sheena he felt like they’d enrolled in a fitness or bodybuilder program.
Sheena also appreciated her nutrition coach, Christine, who helped guide her through the questions she had about her new allergies and nutrition needs. In each trimester, Sheena’s appetite and health issues changed. Some foods would suddenly cause her heartburn and indigestion, so they were at risk of going to waste. Christine always had great suggestions or ideas for altering her diet (like adding fresh ginger to relieve her heartburn) so that she could continue to eat healthily.
And then came her little girl. Sheena’s baby was born by C-section in May, healthy, bright-eyed, and with beautiful hair. Sheena named her Faith, in keeping with her own faith in the wonder and joy that life can bring.
Today, Sheena feels grateful for the support that the NourishedRx program provided, not just in terms of the nutrition knowledge and budgeting strategies that continued to help her after the program ended, but even emotionally. Her coaches were always there for her, giving her mental support and someone to talk to whenever she was overwhelmed or needed to vent. She wishes that kind of help could be available to every new mother who needs it. In the meantime, she’s enjoying the walks she gets to go on with Faith in the warm weather with the birds chirping in the trees, knowing that she and her family have the healthy food they need to thrive during what otherwise could have been a very challenging time.
