New Partnerships with Regional Hospitals Extending Food Bank Services
Feeding the food insecure is more than providing food, it is providing wellness, nourishment and strength. Here at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, our goal is to distribute and promote healthy food to those in need in our community. When people don’t have enough food or have to choose inexpensive food with low nutritional value, it can impact their health.
The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank has been working with hospitals to continue to reach our goal of providing healthy food options. In March of 2021, the Food Bank began their partnership with both Our Lady of the Lake and Woman’s Hospital to help find food insecure individuals and provide them with access to resources. Thanks to our parent organization, Feeding America, the Food Bank received the “Food is Medicine” grant from the philanthropic arm of Anthem, Anthem Foundation, allowing us to partner with Our Lady of the Lake.
Through Our Lady of the Lake’s Geaux Get Healthy program, patients are screened by hospital staff for food insecurity. Once a patient is referred to the Geaux Get Healthy program, they are given a 20-pound box of healthy food choices individually built by the Food Bank’s nutrition services team. Additionally, patients are given the contact information to a special extension at the Food Bank which connects them to food sourcing through one of our member agencies.
During the launch of our partnership with Our Lady of the Lake and Anthem Foundation, a similar program began with Woman’s Hospital in hopes of exploring a partnership to provide resources to the food insecure they serve. Woman’s and Mary Bird Perkins – Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center’s Breast & GYN Cancer Pavilion staff now screen cancer patients for food insecurity and provide those patients with Food Bank contact information. This flyer is also available in the waiting room of the pavilion in hopes those in need can be directed to a member agency for a steady source of food.
In addition to the pavilion, our Mobile Produce Market that provides fresh fruits and vegetables accompanies the mobile efforts by Woman’s Hospital and Mary Bird Perkins to screen for breast and colorectal cancer. Those deemed food insecure during these screenings receive a box of fresh produce and discuss the Food Bank services with our nutrition services team.
Learn more about our hospital partnerships by contacting the Food Bank at 225.359.9940 or info@brfoodbank.org.
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