Food Insecurity Screening Strengthens Safety Net
Puget Sound AHA connects healthcare 和 community groups to reach people in need.
Improving nutrition security means connecting the dots among area community 和 clinical groups that provide services for under resourced vulnerable populations.
With a regionwide plan, the AHA’s Puget Sound team:
- Collaborated with organizations to identify those who need food 和 nutrition resources;
- Worked alongside area health department teams to integrate food security screening, 推荐, nutrition education 和 produce prescriptions into their programs; 和
- Exp和ed reach to include community settings, as many people access health care from different sources.
One example of the power of collaboration: Working with a regional youth organization, the Puget Sound AHA team helped build a process to screen families for food insecurity 和 provide 推荐s to food resources. Together we’re reaching 2,200 children 和 their families annually, many in lower-income brackets.
Puget Sound AHA also worked with a senior housing organization to set up a food security screening 和 推荐 process, plus open on-site food pantries. Housing organization staff can now connect with more than 1,100 seniors a year 和 help support their food 和 nutrition needs.
“Being able to expose so many different generations to fresh fruits 和 vegetables was a true learning experience for them,肯·克莱默说, 项目经理, 居民服务, SHAG Community Life Foundation. “It really helped people be introduced to the nutrition that we all need.”
Putting the screening-和-推荐 model down on paper, Puget Sound AHA created a concise document to guide community groups in launching food security screening programs. The team also created a community-specific food resources document — translated into six languages — to meet the needs of area populations.