CNP Awarded $250,000 Highmark Blue Fund Grant
Community Nutrition Partnership Receives $250,000 Highmark Blue Fund Grant to Support Pregnant and New Mothers in Chautauqua County
Community Nutrition Partnership has received a $250,000 grant from the Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Fund to launch a new maternal health nutrition program in Chautauqua County.
The nine-month program will support 76 women during pregnancy and through the first six months after their babies are born—a critical period for the health and well-being of both mothers and infants.
Participants will receive a combination of nutritious food, medical nutrition therapy, health coaching, and practical support tailored to their changing needs. The program will include prepared meals during the early postpartum period, when recovering from childbirth and caring for a newborn can make it especially difficult for mothers to prioritize their own nutrition.
As participants move through the program, food and support services will evolve with them. Registered Dietitians will provide individualized nutrition guidance, while Community Health Workers will help participants set goals, address barriers, connect with resources, and build healthy routines that can continue beyond the program.
Learning Alongside the Community
Although this program will strengthen CNP's nutrition services delivered through New York’s Medicaid Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver and its New York Health Equity Reform (NYHER) initiatives.
In particular, the program will help us better understand how different food services, medical nutrition therapy, health coaching, and community-based support can be combined to meet participants’ needs over time. These lessons may help inform how CNP and its partners design and deliver maternal nutrition programs within Medicaid and other healthcare-funded models.
In addition to supporting participating mothers and babies, the program will help us better understand how nutrition services can be designed around the realities of pregnancy and the postpartum period.
Through this work, we hope to learn:
How women’s nutrition needs, challenges, and priorities change from pregnancy through the first six months postpartum
Which combinations of food, nutrition counseling, and health coaching are most useful at different stages
Whether providing prepared meals immediately after birth helps mothers maintain good nutrition during recovery
How nutrition support can complement prenatal, postpartum, and breastfeeding support
What helps participants stay engaged in a nine-month program
How healthcare and community organizations can work together to create a coordinated and sustainable maternal nutrition model
The University at Buffalo will serve as the program’s evaluation partner, helping us measure outcomes, understand participants’ experiences, and identify lessons that can strengthen future maternal health programming.
Built Through Local Partnership
This initiative is being developed in collaboration with organizations that bring deep knowledge of Chautauqua County and the women and families who live there.
Our partners include The Chautauqua Center, Healthy Community Alliance, Jamestown Community Learning Council, the Chautauqua County Department of Health, the University at Buffalo, and Chautauqua Health Network.
Chautauqua Health Network is also coordinating the expenditure of an additional $30,000 to support the program and helping ensure that the initiative is locally connected and responsive to the community.
Each partner will bring a different perspective—from healthcare and public health to family support, community engagement, local coordination, and evaluation. Together, we will work to make participation accessible, support women throughout their journey, and learn from the experience as the program develops.
“We have an important opportunity to learn how nutritious food, clinical nutrition services, and personal support can work together to help women feel healthier and better supported during pregnancy and after their babies are born,” said Kristie Chamberlain, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Community Nutrition Partnership. “We are grateful to Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and our Chautauqua County partners for trusting us to build and learn from this work together.”
The program is expected to begin serving participants in 2027.
Community Nutrition Partnership is grateful to the Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Fund for investing in this work and to our partners for helping us build a program that is grounded in the strengths, needs, and experiences of Chautauqua County families.