HealthPort, a health service provider in Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore, reports that people with serious mental illnesses live up to 25 fewer years than the population as a whole due to disproportionately high rates of conditions like diabetes and hypertension. They are also more likely to face food insecurity. Rural settings can compound these challenges and result in poorer health outcomes for their populations.
This nonprofit community health provider works to help address these issues through its Food is Medicine program, which provides nutritious, ready-to-eat meals to people with serious mental illnesses living near or below the poverty line. The meals are served hot people in its rehabilitation, crisis, and treatment programs, promoting their access to healthy foods and supporting their overall physical and mental health.
An SNF grant made as part of its Global Health Initiative (GHI) lent support to the Food is Medicine Program at a point when HealthPort was embarking on an expansion of service from four days to seven a week after building new onsite commercial kitchen facilities. The organization’s Food is Medicine interventions are coupled with research so that it can continually refine and improve its approach.