Nonprofit helps hospitals connect patients with healthy food

Pediatrician Dr. Suzette Oyeku prides herself on helping kids thrive. When she noticed a rise in unmet social needs among her patients, she began exploring innovative and practical ways to assist their families.

“We’re seeing a lot of the impacts of poverty show up in our exam rooms, and one of those is not having sufficient money for food,” said Oyeku, chief of the division of academic general pediatrics at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in New York.

The Bronx-based hospital has found that 1 in 3 of its patients are living in households lacking access to adequate nutritious foods due to financial barriers. With Oyeku’s help, the hospital launched a partnership this month to help bring healthy foods to kitchen tables with nonprofit About Fresh and grocer Stop & Shop, which provided a $75,000 grant to fund the collaboration.

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The hospital is testing Boston-based About Fresh’s “Fresh Connect” program, through which eligible families receive a prepaid debit card to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables at Stop & Shop and other grocery stores in About Fresh's network. The cards are reloaded with $100 each month. The program allows organizations to track transactions and tie data back to electronic health records to measure Fresh Connect’s impact on health outcomes over time.

“Despite how important food is to our health outcomes, it is not integrated into healthcare systems,” said Josh Trautwein, co-founder and CEO of About Fresh.

Patients at the children’s hospital who screen positive as food insecure are referred to a community health worker, who connects the family with the nonprofit.

A healthy diet can help boost immune function and prevent or manage chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, Oyeku said. She also hopes the program will help address challenges related to obesity, anorexia and bulimia, which were exacerbated by the rise in mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The hospital’s initiative, which will begin screening patients at three primary-care sites and in its eating disorders program, is expected to reach about 100 families in six months. The community health worker and About Fresh teams will track each family’s utilization of the card, and the hospital will seek participant input regarding the program’s structure and accessibility.

The hospital hopes to secure additional funding to continue the program if it yields promising participation and engagement results, Oyeku said.

About Fresh is collaborating with about 20 other healthcare provider and community-based organizations, including Mass General Brigham and Boston Medical Center, to bring its “Fresh Connect” program to more patients. It aims to expand its list of foods available for purchase with the debit cards to include options medically tailored for specific diseases. A diabetic cardholder, for example, would have access to additional foods with a low glycemic index.