Teenagers are spending their summer break in St. Paul packing meals for families across the metro.

They are supporting the work of the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub, which opened in 2021 to address the social determinants of health.

“The majority of what makes someone healthy or not happens outside of the wall of the hospitals or clinics,” said Terese Hill, the supervisor of food system strategy for Fairview Health Services. She explained factors can include the zip code where someone lives, their employment options or their access to grocery stores and healthy food.

“Research shows the more we can eat at home, the lower the levels of sodium, saturated fats, added sugars,” she said. “There are so there’s some great research that points to at-home meal consumption and better outcomes.”

The health care system partners with the Sanneh Foundation, Appetite for Change, Urban Roots and World Youth Connect to offer paid work experience to teenagers to pack and delivery food boxes to people in need.

“We give people a four-course meal and how to cook it,” explained Darius Duffie, the president of World Youth Connect. “We put in a protein, we put a couple seasonings in, we also put the recipe to the meal.”

Twenty teenagers from World Youth Connect pack more than 300 food kits every Wednesday.

Seventeen-year-old Duffie has been on the receiving end of the meal kit delivery, so he understands both the benefits of getting the healthy food box and the reward of putting it together.

“I think it’s very important because our young people and even our elders get to learn about nutrition, food value and even when we packing the food boxes, our members learn teamwork skills and work values,” he said. “I definitely say it means a lot to us to come here.”

Overall, through the various partners, 650 meal boxes are distributed from the Hub each week. Just over half of the kits are delivered to patients, while the other boxes are delivered to community members, according to Hill.

The majority of the produce is from local farmers through market-rate contracts.

“About 80 to 90 percent of the produce in boxes is from local farmers, primarily emerging or BIPOC farmers and this is the first year we have all local proteins, which is really fun,” said Hill. “On the surface, it’s like yes, food distribution, we want to get this good food out to people who might need it, but as a collaborative, we look for ways to layer in and deepen the impact we’re having.”

Duffie told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he’s learned valuable leadership skills as he helps others in World Youth Connect grow.

“We just want them to be themselves and grow into a positive and productive person,” he said.