Healthy & Resilient Community

Building a Healthy Community

Health is a central tenet of a great quality of life. Good health keeps kids in school and keeps adults employed, which helps keep households stable. 

By investing in the health of 4,500 more residents in Story County, we can chip away at the inequities that keep people from succeeding. Health services can range from in-home hospice to mental health, substance abuse counseling to healthy food.

 


Health & Resiliency in Story County


Our Local Investments & Initiatives


LIVE UNITED Food Drive

Hunger is real. The statistics are scary and steady. More than one in four children in Story County continues to be eligible to receive free/reduced lunch.

Once summer break starts, these children won't have access to school-provided meals. Therefore, the need for food at local food pantries is even greater during the summer months.


BackPack Program

Story County's Free and Reduced Lunch rates have risen, with one in four students affected. To support at-risk students over weekends, the United Way of Story County launched the BackPack Program™, providing backpacks filled with food for students during weekends and extended breaks.

Summer Meals

UWSC is doing even more to help meet the summer demand by coming together with other community organizations to run summer food programs through Summer Learning programs throughout the county.


Story County Hunger Collaboration

Despite our efforts to address the problem, we know that the number of people in our county who go to bed hungry at night is much higher than most of our general population recognizes. Because of that, we developed a Hunger Collaboration to work with others in our community to create a plan that educates our communities that there is a need and to work together to significantly reduce the incidence of hunger in our community. 


SingleCare Prescription Cards

UWSC has partnered with SingleCare to bring a free prescription discount card to Story County. The card works like a reusable prescription coupon on all FDA approved medicines. Anyone can use it. You can even use it if you have health insurance, both during deductible periods and for anything your insurance doesn't cover. 

Download a printable card online! If you don't have a printer, simply pick one up at our office (315 Clark Ave. in Ames) anytime we're open.


Partner Agencies


Indicators

Our Clear Impact Scorecard helps us keep track of how well the programs we fund are doing. By looking at this data, we can see what works and how to better support the community. This way, we make sure our efforts really make a difference.

Healthy Community Indicator #1

Story County residents have access to enough food and healthy food. - LEARN MORE

Healthy Community Indicator #2

Children, youth, and adults are emotionally/behaviorally and socially well - LEARN MORE

Healthy Community Indicator #3

Story County residents are physically well - LEARN MORE