Nourishing Healthy Communities One Meal at a Time

Thousands of people in north St. Louis County struggle with food insecurity and type 2 diabetes. Over the past year and a half, nearly 900 people were admitted to Christian Hospital with diabetes. More than half of them lived in high-risk zip codes where food insecurity is the norm.

Because of the devastating health consequences of these factors, Christian Hospital recently launched a diabetes pilot program that takes a creative approach to helping our community members live healthier lives.

Christian Hospital Foundation provided the seed money for the innovative diabetes pilot that provides selected patients treated at Christian Hospital with prepared meals to shape healthy habits for the whole family for better long-term success.

“Through collaboration with BJC, Christian Hospital has been a launch pad and innovator for other initiatives to better address health disparities — it’s very exciting,”  Dana Ballinger, LCSW, MPH, director of care coordination and population health at Christian Hospital, says. “Christian Hospital is an amazing hospital because it’s truly embedded in a vulnerable population. That gives us a great opportunity to connect with the community in a meaningful way.”

The pilot, which will ultimately enroll 35-45 patients, also includes nutritional education and social support.

To develop and implement the groundbreaking program, Christian Hospital strategically collaborated with Operation Food Search, North Sarah Food Hub, My Blooming Health, BJC HealthCare and other community partners.

Going forward, Ballinger looks forward to the possibilities sparked by the diabetes pilot.

The diabetes pilot is trying to prove if access to healthy food, nutritional counseling and community health workers to address health disparities will result in reduced A1c levels — and improved health.

A1c is a simple blood test that gives a snapshot of a patient’s average blood sugar levels over two to three months. It can identify prediabetes, diagnose diabetes, and monitor how diabetes treatment is working over time.

Delivering Delicious Nutrition and Education

Each partner in the diabetes pilot plays a vital role that collectively works to make the program successful.

Christian Hospital diabetes educators identify eligible patients in the hospital. These patients are diagnosed with uncontrolled diabetes, are determined to experience food insecurity, and live in specific at-risk zip codes.

Once patients are enrolled in the program, they receive healthy, prepackaged meals for six weeks. These are medically tailored and portion-controlled to consider calories and carbohydrates. North Sarah Food Hub prepares and delivers the meals to patients and their family members in the home.

Ballinger brought the concept to Jason Purnell, PhD, MPH, BJC HealthCare vice president of community health improvement, and his team. Tapping his research background, Purnell found evidence-based studies that show patients have more success bringing down A1c levels when they are provided the food they need rather than just being counseled on how to eat.

The pilot provides meals for an entire household rather than just the patient. “By providing food for the whole family we’re doing two things: addressing the immediate need of food insecurity and providing social support for the primary participant,” Purnell explains. “When we educate everyone in the household then the patient is much more successful. The goal is for the entire household to develop healthier eating habits.”

The Power of Partnership

Strong teamwork and strategic partnerships were essential in developing and implementing the diabetes pilot.

One of the key partners in the program is North Sarah Food Hub, an Indigenous-led organization that prepares and delivers the meals to the program participants. North Sarah Food Hub delivered meals to the community throughout the pandemic and was experienced in the mass delivery process. It features a kitchen and distribution center in north St. Louis and employs people from the community.

“It made sense to choose a partner embedded in the community,” Ballinger says. “The leader of North Sarah Food Hub, Gibron Jones, is also a farmer in North County. We appreciated that his team provides healthy, culturally competent meals because the program doesn’t work if people don’t like the food.”

Operation Food Search is tasked with providing nutritional counseling for patients. “They bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the nutritional counseling piece of the program,” Purnell says.

Operation Food Search’s focus is on the root causes of hunger and access to healthy foods, explains Carlton Adams, chief operating officer of Operation Food Search and Christian Hospital Foundation board chair. “Those social determinants are issues seen at the hospital. We can make an impact so food can act as medicine.”