Healthy Hearts Plus II: How a Local Black-Owned Organization Empowers Communities Through Nutritional Education
Partner Spotlights are a platform for Robins Foundation grantees to highlight their important work and for Robins Foundation to recognize the incredible efforts and successes of our partners. This month, our Administrative and Operations Coordinator, Annaliese Santana, interviewed two members of the incredible team at Healthy Hearts Plus II: Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman, Founder, and Zipporah Baa’ith, Administrative Director. Founded in 1999, Healthy Hearts Plus II’s programs bring nutritional education, holistic dietary lifestyle, and essential early childhood resources to our most vulnerable communities. In 2024 alone, this impactful organization serviced over 400 individuals and families in the greater Richmond region. Throughout their interview, Dr. Freeman and Zipporah provided inspiring insights on the importance of nutritional education, how a holistic dietary lifestyle can be embedded in early education, and how their work “makes love simple.”
Can you please explain, at a high level, what your organization does?
Zipporah Baa’ith
Healthy Hearts Plus II is actually designed and dedicated to reducing health disparities and improving wellness outcomes in underserved communities. Our programs emphasize culturally competent nutrition education, maternal and infant health education, diabetes management, and addressing traumas for communities that often get overlooked.
On your website, you placed a big emphasis on nutritional education. Can you please explain what that is?
Zipporah Baa’ith
As a culture and society, we are finally coming to terms with the fact that food is medicine. At Healthy Hearts Plus II, we believe that choosing the right foods can heal you. So, we make sure that we educate the community because many of our health conditions originate from the foods we have access to. Many of us live in areas where the only foods available are fried or processed or non-living. So, many of us do not have the ability to choose our foods. That is why it is so important that we educate the community and let them know that they can have control over the foods they eat.
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
And we embed that nutritional education in our maternal and infant health programs. We teach pregnant mothers to honor themselves so they can have good pregnancy and delivery outcomes. So, we have a methodology that encourages mothers to eat foods from the ground, the trees, and the vines, and to pass those lessons on to their children.
Based on your experiences, what systemic changes must be made to ensure that vulnerable communities can access these resources?
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
We need to focus on equity. It’s not that the food isn’t available, it’s that the food is not there for the community we serve. They are excluded and this has been a perpetual issue. Good food should be made available to everyone. At one point, we could sustain ourselves using seeds. Now, seeds are not readily available to us. To address this systemic issue, we need to empower the community, help them access seeds, and teach them how to use the ground to produce their daily bread. After that, we need to unite others, collaborate with local farmers, move out of institutionalized supermarkets, and get people involved in the heart of agriculture.
Zipporah Baa’ith
We practice this in our programs as well. In one of our programs, we actually have one little boy who farms and plants with his mom on their back porch.
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
Yes! Some of the people we work with live in apartments or government housing, and many of them will grow plants on their windowsills. So this is just really, really powerful work within itself. But it’s simple. And our goal is to make love simple again and bring people back to the basics.
What you just described, bringing your community back to the heart of agriculture and growing their daily bread, is this what Healthy Hearts Plus II defines as a holistic dietary lifestyle?
Zipporah Baa’ith
Yes. That holistic dietary lifestyle is what our nutritional education is rooted in. We’ve had different programs come out of that. As it pertains to our early education programs, a holistic dietary lifestyle starts with the mom and then transfers to the child. The mother is a child’s first teacher and first feeder. So, we make sure our early education programs address how foods affect us physically and psychologically.
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
We also emphasize the importance of water. Zipporah actually teaches moms about making sure their babies are hydrated and how they can search for signs of dehydration. One of our other early childhood educators also teaches the babies sign language, and they teach the babies how to ask for water.
One of the programs you all offer, which is funded by Robins Foundation, is your Lap Baby Education Program. Can you please describe what that is?
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
The Lap Baby Education Program is a step before preschool education. We engage the mothers and their babies to prepare them for preschool, and we help mothers identify where their child is developmentally. To teach families that food is medicine, we give the moms instruction on how certain foods benefit their child’s intellectual development.
Zipporah Baa’ith
To add on to that, our Lap Baby Education Program prepares families for preschool, kindergarten, and helps them matriculate throughout their whole educational path. But, we all know that education starts at home, so we help mothers create an educational environment that is nurturing. Along with our program director, Renada Lewis, who is our head facilitator for our programs, we have a licensed clinician that helps mothers identify where their child is developmentally. We meet with moms and their babies weekly and we offer in-person and virtual lessons.
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
We also have a resource directory, can connect moms with clinicians, and have an app where moms and anyone else can easily access information about our programs. We empower mothers and their families to become advocates and for themselves and their children. It’s just so powerful to work with women who have the courage to speak their truth and show other women that it is okay to ask for support.
What inspired the creation of your Lap Baby Education Program?
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
We started working in the maternal health and early education space in 2006, after a young pregnant woman came to our office with a toothache. I wasn’t sure why she thought I could help her. But, I offered her an apple while she waited. When she tried to take a bite she had to stop because her tooth hurt too much. She explained that she didn’t have insurance to go to a private dentist. When she went to a public clinic she was told that they couldn’t meet with her until after she had her baby. Speaking with her made me realize that Healthy Hearts Plus II needed to do more in the maternal health space. So, we started offering classes, partnered with Capital Area Health Network, that could meet with women and teach them about dental hygiene, and taught pregnant women and mothers simple meal preparation, among many other things. That actually changed the course of so many lives and we are so grateful to the Robins Foundation because they believe in what we are doing.
Zipporah Baa’ith
Lap Baby Education came into play when we noticed there were gaps in the maternal health space. We had a lot of mothers coming in and seeking guidance for their children’s development. So, we always offer reliable, culturally relevant materials to help close some of those gaps.
Since the creation of Healthy Hearts Plus II to the present day, can you talk about how you have seen communities flourish as a result of the work that you do?
Zipporah Baa’ith
Reverend Dr. Alice Freeman is a pioneer in the greater Richmond community. I’ve seen other programs and organizations really be inspired by her work. As a result, these resources have expanded and the community has benefitted more. She’s just such a trailblazer.
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
Because my husband was in the armed forces, we moved to places like Japan and Germany. Wherever we went, we created gardens and encouraged others to do the same. Through the years, we’ve used that ideology and carried it with us. That ideology has since evolved into a method and now we are able to apply that method to our Healthy Hearts Plus II programs. I believe I have been trusted with this work because I stand up for integrity and righteousness. I believe we have a responsibility to protect our community and the work that we do. As Zipporah said, we are grateful that our work has expanded. We are also fortunate enough to reach people where they are and view a person holistically in order to get positive outcomes.
What motivates you all to do this work?
Zipporah Baa’ith
Dr. Freeman has always championed our community, particularly for women. Growing up with her as my mother, that was the example she always set. My upbringing in addition to having a son and learning how to advocate for him inspired me to get involved in this work.
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
There is this one scripture that I love that says, “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.” And that is my motivating factor. I have to do justice and protect those around me. It’s important that we’re being honest and sincere about what we believe we’re called to do, love mercy, have mercy on those, and not pass judgment. At Healthy Hearts Plus II, we have a no judgement zone. Someone could have 15 children, addictions, or be homeless, and we will still have a safe place in the circle for them. We don’t allow anyone to make someone feel marginalized.
Is there anything you would like to promote in this interview?
Rev. Dr. Alice Freeman
Absolutely, our community based Diabetic Self-Management Program, led by our clinical nurse practitioner, serves and supports mothers with gestational diabetes and individuals in under-resourced communities; and our Lap Baby Education Program, for which we’re currently recruiting participants to foster early childhood development and family wellness. And above all, we invite everyone to embrace our guiding principle: Make Love Simple.
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To learn more about the incredible work at Healthy Hearts Plus II, please visit: https://www.healthyheartsplus2.com/new/
