Our History

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Natural Path Nutrition Inc. (NPN) was founded by Lauren Materre in 2012 on the south side of Chicago with a mission to provide nutrition education to young, inner-city children and senior citizens. Since its inception, NPN has conducted those nutrition education programs at multiple elementary schools and assisted living centers while offering healthy food options as well. 

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In the summers of 2016 and 2017, Natural Path Nutrition Inc. and its interns hosted two successful rallies dubbed "New Age of Awareness Rally" to support engaging in Black community engagement and to additionally promote a new age of awareness regarding health and wellness, economic empowerment, food deserts, and community service and development. This is an excellent opportunity for the interns to get first- hand experience in the internship areas of concentration as well as empower the community. Both rallies offered community members the ability to receive free rapid HIV testing, free blood glucose level assessments and free blood pressure assessments as well as the opportunity to sign up for health care insurance. 

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In 2019, senior project manager Drake Materre created the Prodigy Saints Scholarship Fund sponsored by his clothing line Prodigy Saints to award two, Black graduating seniors from Chicago Public High Schools $500 each for their respective colleges. In 2020, due to increased community support, we were able to award two deserving graduating seniors $750 each! 

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In 2020, after the death of George Floyd and while in the midst of Covid-19, Natural Path Nutrition Inc. expanded to the Champaign-Urbana area becoming a staple in the community in the areas of patient advocacy, combating food insecurity and nutrition education. Natural Path Nutrition Inc. created the Uproot Initiative and our new #Free2Feed Campaign to focus on combating food insecurity through food sovereignty.

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