Second Harvest to launch ‘Food As Medicine’ initiative to screen people for food insecurity
A $425,000 grant will help screen up to 1,000 people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in the next three years.
Second Harvest of Silicon Valley has won a $425,000 grant to help doctors screen up to 1,000 people over the next three years for food insecurity, ultimately connecting them with food distribution programs and nutritious food options.
“Food as Medicine,” a Feeding America initiative funded by Anthem Blue Cross Foundation’s philanthropic group Elevance Health Foundation, aims to connect approximately 600 food insecure individuals in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties with Second Harvest — one of the largest food banks in the country.
The grant comes just several months after the federal government ended emergency CalFresh benefits from the pandemic for nearly 3 million Californians, with eligible households losing at least $95 a month in benefits and some seeing their benefits drop to as low as $23 a month. Second Harvest also has been helping a record-number of people since the pandemic started, serving on average about 500,000 people a month.
The California Association of Food Banks estimates that one in five Californians, or 8.4 million residents, struggle with food insecurity — the lack of consistent access to nutritious foods.
“One thing we see among our clients is for many people who are food insecure, you are skipping meals, you aren’t getting enough nutrients, and often people have to resort to the cheapest meals available, which is often fast food,” Leslie Bacho, the CEO of Second Harvest said.
Bacho said the food bank has been focused on its food offerings for some time now, making sure it provides healthy and nutritious options to its clients.
With the new grant funds, the food bank can now take that one step further by working with its medical partners who will screen patients for food insecurity. Those identified as being food insecure will be referred to Second Harvest’s team who can assist with locating a food distribution site in the individual’s neighborhood, find out if they have mobility issues and need home food delivery or determine whether they are eligible for CalFresh benefits and help them start the application process.
“One thing I hope is that it just becomes completely normalized for doctors to screen for food insecurity and that there will be a more direct way for people to get connected to food resources,” Bacho said.
Dr. Hilary Seligman, a professor at the University of California San Francisco’s School of Medicine and senior medical advisor for Feeding America, said food insecurity can impact both physical and mental health in people of all ages. It can cause high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer, among other physical issues. Living in a food insecure household can also be a stressful environment, making people more susceptible to developing anxiety or depression.
Seligman said that if a patient comes to her with pre-diabetes, in many cases she will prescribe medication even though access to a healthy diet is “just as effective as a pill.” But often, doctors don’t have that tool available to them, she said, despite the thousands of years-old concept of people using food and herbs to treat health conditions.
“Food is really important for people’s health,” she said. “And when people don’t have the money, we need to support them in accessing it.”