Kate Farms® Donates Plant-Based Nutrition Shakes to Tribal Elders in Rural Native American Communities

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kate Farms, a plant-based, clinically proven nutritional formula company, announced today that it is collaborating with Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health to distribute donated plant-based meal replacement shakes to Native American communities throughout the Navajo Nation, including elders in Tuba City, Chinle, Crown Point, Shiprock, and Fort Defiance. The donation includes 2,352 meals that will be distributed through the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Native Americans were already suffering higher rates of infectious disease and mortality than any other population in the United States. Many Native Americans live in crowded, multi-generational homes, so effective home isolation is challenging. In addition, up to 40 percent of the families in some rural tribal communities already experienced food and water insecurity.

As these communities grapple with COVID-19, the Center is delivering food, water, and other critical supplies to families through its community health worker model and in partnership with tribal leaders. The pandemic has also increased the need for quality nutrition and plant-based foods can deliver critical calories and vitamins while also providing healthy nutrition. As part of its COVID-19 relief packages, the Center is including Kate Farms organic, plant-based meal replacement shakes to deliver key nutrients to elders at most risk. 

"We commend organizations like the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health for proactively serving Native American elders and their families," said John Hommeyer, chief experience officer, Kate Farms. "We are donating our formulas to partners who can deliver nourishment directly, quickly, and to the most at-risk. We hope other companies like ours step up likewise to support Native Americans in underserved and frequently ignored communities."

Kate Farms is donating $1 million of its meal replacement shakes to organizations such as the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health that are able to quickly and directly serve people who are at the highest levels of risk in the pandemic.

Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health
Founded in 1991 and based in the Department of International Health of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health supports public health interventions designed for and by Native peoples. The Center has offices in tribal communities across Arizona and New Mexico as well as a Great Lakes Hub serving tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and along the shared border with Canada. The Center also supports public health interventions in more than 140 tribal communities in over 21 states. These partnerships have achieved landmark public health breakthroughs credited with saving millions of children's lives in the U.S. and worldwide. To learn more about the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, visit: http://caih.jhu.edu.

About Kate Farms
Kate Farms was founded in 2011 when a little girl named Kate Laver was failing to thrive because she couldn't tolerate any of the available tube feeding formulas. Her determined parents had the transformative idea to develop a better formula using the highest-quality, organic, plant-based ingredients without the synthetic ingredients and common allergens found in traditional formulas. Today Kate is a thriving teenager and parents and healthcare professionals are driving a movement that says tolerance is no longer the acceptable measure of effectiveness in medical nutrition.

Kate Farms produces unique, plant-based, organic, clinically proven nutritional formulas without major allergens including soy, dairy and corn. Covered by Medicare, Medicaid and more than 2,000 private insurance plans and a growing number of WIC plans, Kate Farms is made of easily digestible pea protein, prebiotics from organic agave inulin and a clinically effective phytonutrient blend that delivers antioxidants. Kate Farms flows easily through a feeding tube and is also used orally because of its great taste.  Kate Farms is on formulary with many of leading children's and adult hospital systems across the country.

For more information, visit www.katefarms.com or follow the company on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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SOURCE Kate Farms