Author: Michelle Seguin MD, IFMCP; Re:Think Health Co-Founder

Are your patients struggling with hunger? Do you know if your community offers emergency food assistance programs? How do you connect your patients with community resources? These are important questions that many clinicians across the country will face, if they haven’t already, as a result of COVID-19.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Feeding America states that nearly 1 in 7 people or approximately 37 million Americans struggle with hunger. Due to the closure of non-essential businesses and widespread shelter-in-place orders to comply with social distancing, approximately 7.1 million Americans filed for unemployment in March 2020 and that number is rising. As we know, income and employment are factors that directly influence food security particularly in low-income populations. After the immediate surge of COVID-19 subsides, our health systems will be faced with a secondary epidemic of hunger and poverty related to the economic fallout of the pandemic.

As a clinician you may be asking, “what can I do to address food insecurity?” Here are a few practical strategies to consider in your clinical practice:

• Screen for food insecurity: Use the 2 question validated tool from AAP
• Research emergency food assistance programs in your community: the Feeding America “Find a Food Bank” directory is a good place to start.
• Inquire if your health system or local health department has a “community resource guide”, which often includes information regarding: food pantries, community meals, senior meals, school-based backpack programs, etc.
• Talk positively about federal food assistance programs like SNAP and WIC with your patients. How we frame these conversations can go a long way to reduce shame and stigma.
• Encourage your patients to engage in your local food system by participating in a community garden, shopping at a farm stand or farmers market, joining a CSA (community supported agriculture), etc.
• Suggest that your patients try growing a portion of their own food with a windowsill herb garden, patio container garden, or raised beds if they have the space. Gardening is a great activity to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being with the added benefit of increasing food access.

Thank you for all you do to care for our communities and country. You are #healthcareheroes in my mind and I’m proud to call you my colleagues.