Staff Spotlight: Laura Urban

Years at Children’s Council:

3 years

How I contribute to the success of Children’s Council: 

I bring over 10 years of experience strategizing and implementing nutrition security and chronic disease prevention programs at the state and local level. My career started with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada working in Child Nutrition and Nutrition Education Programming for children and families, and most recently oversaw the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services Office of Food Security and Wellness, leading and supporting the development, implementation, and evaluation of Nevada’s Food Security state plan and acting as a liaison among food security partners statewide.

Proudest moment: 

Working with my team to implement a Farm to Early Care and Education pilot program that supports local nutrition security at various levels – at child care, home, and in the community. The program provided fresh, local produce to educators participating in our Child and Adult Care Food Program, encouraging educators to integrate the produce into their meals/snacks and nutrition education. We were so excited to see that the program had a positive impact: 86.95% of educators reported the program increased the variety of fruits and vegetables served; 78.26% reported they did not have to spend as much money on fruits and vegetables for Child and Adult Care Food Program meals and snacks; and 86.96% reported that children in care were more excited and willing to try new, fresh foods. 

What inspires you each day:

The children in our community who experience food and nutrition insecurity and the families who work tirelessly to put food on the table every day.  

Favorite thing about working at Children’s Council:

My team! We’re small, but mighty – I really appreciate the passion they bring to their work to make a difference in our community. 

Greatest challenge:

Lack of sustainable funding to continue our Farm to Early Care and education efforts. While we’ve been able to fund two short-term pilots, we lack the funding to continue this important work. We know this program can have an incredible impact and we’re eager to launch year-round programming (and expand!). 

What you would do with a large donation: 

I would strengthen our existing programming to build capacity and the infrastructure needed to expand our reach and impact. This would include supporting more educators in San Francisco to create healthy child care environments through our Healthy Apple Program, with a special focus on those participating in our Child and Adult Care Food Program. I’d also launch our Farm to Early Care and Education programming year-round – hire a full-time coordinator to lead this work and spearhead the development of culturally-relevant educational materials to support child care educators integrate nutrition and garden education into their curricula.