Addressing Food Insecurity: Lessons Learned from Co-Locating a Food Pantry with a Federally Qualified Health Center

Abstract

Introduction: Social determinants of health, such as food insecurity, contribute to chronic health conditions, decreased quality of life, and health disparities. Increasingly, healthcare systems seek to address social determinants of health by integrating medical and social care.Description: Eskenazi Health Center Pecar is a Federally Qualified Health Center providing comprehensive primary care to vulnerable patients in Indianapolis, IN, USA. This health center, in coalition with community partners, established and continually developed an integrated food pantry model to address food insecurity, improve nutrition education, and support patient access to healthy food.Discussion: Food insecurity and poor nutrition are common in primary care and contribute to the incidence and outcomes of chronic conditions such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Long-term management of food assistance and nutrition programs requires substantial resources, partnerships, and leadership. We describe lessons learned in food pantry partnership, funding, logistics, and sustainability in a collaborative food access model integrated into healthcare. These lessons learned can be utilized by other health systems to scale up and accelerate strategies to better address food security and nutrition education. This paper articulates best practices for integrating a food pantry model within primary care with the goal of long-term sustainability and direct impact on patient health outcomes.

Implementation of Food is Medicine Programs in Healthcare Settings: A Narrative Review

“…Thirty-one sources published between 2014 and 2024 were included in the narrative review (Supplemental Table 1), 18, with 84% being published since 2019. 18,[38][39][40][41]43,45,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][58][59][60][62][63][64][65][66][67] Sources included 22 peer-reviewed articles (71%), 18,38,39,41,43,44,46,[48][49][50][51][52][53]55,56,58,60,61,63,64,66,67 four reports, 45,…”

“…18,[38][39][40][41]43,45,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][58][59][60][62][63][64][65][66][67] Sources included 22 peer-reviewed articles (71%), 18,38,39,41,43,44,46,[48][49][50][51][52][53]55,56,58,60,61,63,64,66,67 four reports, 45,47,59,62 four toolkits, 40,…”

“…Leadership Fourteen sources described healthcare or implementation leadership (Table 1) as facilitators to FIM programs. 18,40,42,43,47,49,53,54,56,59,60,62,65,66 Leveraging champions for FIM programs among multiple levels of leadership 40,43,54,59,65,66 and between partner organizations 56 was key. Early engagement and efforts to ensure healthcare leadership buy-in 42,47,54,60,62,65 or institutional and department approval 40,53 were important.…”

The charitable food system as a change agent

“…Alternatively, clinicians in medical settings can screen patients for food insecurity and refer them to local food pantries (53). In clinics that serve high-risk populations, such as Federally Qualified Health Centers, food pantries may even be placed inside the clinic to maximize ease and access (54).…”

Development and evaluation of the Food Bank Health and Nutrition Assessment

“…Much of the published work in this area has focused on initiatives in food pantries, as the consumer-facing side of the system. These initiatives have included efforts such as distribution of suggested donation lists (22,23) , coordination with food policy councils (24,25) , developing nutrition-focused policies, transitioning distribution from traditional pre-packaged boxes to client-choice models (22)(23)(24) , incorporating wrap-around social services (24,26) , partnering with the health care system (27) and reorganising how items appear to 'nudge' clients towards healthier items (22)(23)(24)28) , among others (22,23,26) . These initiativesmany of which began within the last decadefocus on making healthier choices easy and accessible (29) and are coupled with established nutrition education programming (30) .…”