Funded Projects

Emergency Food Pantry

Project Year

2022

City & State

Greenville, North Carolina

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Nutrition

Program Description

The Problem: Food insecurity is the limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate foods or an uncertain ability to access foods in a socially acceptable way. Food insecurity is a social determinant of health associated with poor health outcomes in children and their families. Pediatricians are in a unique position to identify children with food insecurity and provide interventions that remove barriers and promote healthy development. Primary Setting: East Carolina University is located in eastern North Carolina, a 29-county catchment area. Our community is categorized as rural, medically underserved, and experiences high rates of poverty. Most of the patients served by our academic medical center, through primary and specialty care, are Medicaid recipients. Number of Children Affected: An estimated 400,000 children are affected by food insecurity in North Carolina. The patient panel of the ECU Adult and Pediatric Health Clinic is primarily drawn from 8 counties and cares for approximately 12,000 patients per year with approximately 1/3 of these patients being children. Nearly 30% of children in our clinic screen positive for food insecurity, which is higher than the North Carolina average of 20%. Project Goal: We would like to reduce the rate of children who are hungry in our community by providing families with children that screen positive for food insecurity at our clinic with an immediate source of nutritious and developmentally appropriate food. Proposed Intervention: Funds would be used to establish a food pantry housed within the East Carolina Adult and Pediatric Health Care Clinic. Families being seen in the clinic would complete a screener and, if positive for food insecurity, the clinic would provide a nutritionally appropriate food bag for the child(ren). Families would also be connected with the clinic's social worker and community partners to assist with addressing the cause of the family's food insecurity. Anticipated Outcomes: Families experiencing food insecurity would have an immediate source of nutritious food. We would also see increased referral rates and follow up with our community partners that address food insecurity within our community.

Project Goal

Our goal is to build an emergency food pantry within the ECU APHC clinic that provides nutritionally appropriate food bags for toddlers, school-aged, and adolescent patients identified with having food insecurities; and connect the families in need to our social worker in addition to local food resources.

Project Objective 1

By September 30, 2022, an emergency food pantry will be established within the ECU APHC clinic with nutritionally appropriate food for toddlers, school-aged, and adolescent patients.

Project Objective 2

By June 1, 2023, at least 90 % of all families with children identified with food insecurity at APHC will have received a supply of food from the APHC emergency food pantry and have connected with the clinic’s social worker for additional support.

Project Objective 3

By April 1, 2023, in partnership with our local organizations we will establish a long-term sustainable plan to have the emergency food pantry remain stocked with nutritious foods after the grant-funded year has ended.

AAP District

District IV

Institutional Name

ECU/Vidant Medical Center

Contact 1

Anna Laughman