Food is medicine.
Food insecurity is a rampant challenge across the greater Peninsula community, impacting our neighbors in need at rates higher than those seen in the last few years. There has also been a new link between food and nutrition insecurity and poor health. This link is extremely apparent in our Peninsula community, with our neighbors in need on average spending $1,506 more per person in healthcare costs due to food and nutrition insecurity. Because lack of access to healthcare and chronic diseases go hand-in-hand with food insecurity, it has become overwhelmingly clear that we must become a part of the solution.
So how do we at the Foodbank play vital role in health equity and tackling chronic diseases, all while continuing to offer nutritious foods to our community? The Foodbank will be working to partner with healthcare organizations on the Peninsula to ensure that our neighbors in need have access to healthy foods that will help to improve their chronic conditions and quality of life. We are also working with the Federation of Virginia Foodbank’s Health Equity Workgroup, to help close the gap between access to quality health and food and our neighbors in need.
The Foodbank will be working to ensure that our food offerings continue to be nutritious through establishing Healthy Eating Research (HER) Guidelines in our Foodbank, while also making sure that everyone is represented in the products we offer. We will also strengthen our partnerships with Sentara and Riverside Health Systems, as well as form partnerships with the Veterans Administration, the American Heart Association, the Alzheimer’s Association, JenCare, and other local healthcare and health insurance organizations to bring healthy, nutritious programming to our neighbors in need.
If you are in the healthcare industry and would like to partner with us, please reach out to Donna Tighe, dtighe@hrfoodbank.org or call 757.596.7188.