Last fall, Executive Director Carrie Stoltzfus and Nutrition Services Director Becca Kahn sat down with the Washington Business Journal to discuss how Food is Medicine is shaping the landscape of our community and our healthcare system.
What is the need for Food & Friends’ services?
Carrie Stoltzfus: Food & Friends serves people in nine counties in Maryland, seven in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. Think of someone diagnosed with a complex or chronic illness who is nutritionally compromised in some way and requires help with shopping, cooking and food preparation as a result. For example, someone may have an illness with nutrition ramifications, such as a disease being treated by chemotherapy, which can lead to nausea, a change in taste and decreased appetite. People in dialysis also require a regimented diet that could affect their nutrition.
Food & Friends was founded as an HIV/AIDS-serving organization in the 1980s but has expanded its reach since, including a recent partnership with Howard University and its Center for Sickle Cell Disease. What does that partnership entail?
Stoltzfus: The partnership expands coverage to our neighbors living with sickle cell disease and is an example of being responsive to the needs in the community. After initially working with the HIV/AIDS community, we broadened our reach to take care of people living with heart disease, cancer, diabetes and kidney disease and other life-challenging illnesses. So, we continue to try to respond to a need when we find it.
Becca Kahn: People don’t necessarily think of sickle cell disease as an illness where nutrition plays a big role. But people living with the genetic blood disorder often struggle to consume enough calories and the correct nutrients. They may have a hard time standing on their feet to prepare and cook food or even shop and carry heavy grocery bags. Also, people with sickle cell disease often have prolonged hospitalizations, leading to malnutrition, so it’s important to extend these services to them.
How are MTMs different from other healthy foods?
Stoltzfus: Eligibility for our medically tailored meals is based solely on illness to provide food in service of a diagnosis, and that’s why a person is referred to us by their health care or insurance provider. Meal plans are designed to deal with the conditions of the illness and its symptoms or treatment side effects. We are often bundled with food insecurity nonprofits. While many anti-hunger providers are focusing more on providing healthy foods, the complexity of an individual’s medical condition requires a specialized diet offered through our medically tailored meal program. It also includes the nutrition and medication counseling component, which helps a person understand their dietary needs and gain knowledge as one intervention for a person’s specific condition.
Kahn: It’s not just about delivering healthy food. It’s providing the right food for the person’s condition and talking to them about the best time to take medication related to their meal plan. This counseling can also include how to break up a meal into smaller, more frequent meals if someone experiences fullness quickly — or having the right snacks at the right time so blood sugar remains stable. If we just sent out food without the human counseling component, we wouldn’t be as effective as we are at helping people.
Why is the “friends” component of Food & Friends so important?
Stoltzfus: We believe anyone can get sick and everyone can help. Having an illness can be isolating because a person often can’t get around or do the hobbies or activities they love anymore. Both staff and our volunteers see the same clients week after week, and it gives them a chance to get to know someone. The clients know someone genuinely cares about how they are doing.
On the volunteer side, people from all backgrounds come together for a purpose of taking care of others. People make friends through volunteering.
How can the D.C.-area business community support your work?
Stoltzfus: Our volunteer base doubles the hours our staff works. We can’t do this work without community support. Half of our $16.2 million budget is covered by philanthropy. Time and financial support increase the impact that Food & Friends can have on people who need help.
Kahn: We’ve developed an expertise in the MTM movement and have broadened our reach thanks to community support. We know what we’re doing, and so we say to others who want to get involved, “Come help us do it.”
Read the full article in the Washington Business Journal.