If a doctor offers a solution to a problem, there’s a good chance
the patient will listen. That’s the logic behind RX for Food, a program that
identifies families who are food insecure and directs them to Food for Others,
a Fairfax-based food bank.
“As a mom, when I go to the doctor, I listen to everything they
say because I want what’s best for my children,” said Annie Turner, executive
director of Food for Others. “So if my doctor gives me a prescription for my
child, I will take it immediately and fill it so that my child can be well.”
Dr. Fred Garner, a physician at Burke Pediatrics, Turner and
their colleagues came up with the idea for RX for Food while at a local
conference. The story was originally reported by WUSA9.
“(Garner) was talking about how he wanted to feed children over
the summer and I thought, I’ve got a whole warehouse of food, how can we make
this work?” said Turner, a parishioner of St. James Church in Falls Church, where
she originally started volunteering with Food for Others. St. James also has
its own food distribution program, as do many parishes that run programs or
work with diocesan Catholic Charities St. Lucy Project.
Garner and other physicians at his practice couldn’t access the
names of children who received free and reduced lunch at schools. So they
incorporated questions into a nutrition survey to help identify patients who
frequently went hungry. “Our focus was, when school isn’t there, what do these
families (on free and reduced lunches) do?” asked Garner. They then could write
prescriptions for food to be filled at Food for Others. During the summer, needy patients could get
food once a week, and during the school year, once a month.
Of the 2,000 families they surveyed, around 200 were food insecure,
said Garner, which means they may worry where their next meal is coming from,
or not have enough money to buy more food. A quarter of Garner’s patients are
on Medicaid, while the rest have insurance. But when they administered the
survey, the pediatricians found that it wasn’t only those on Medicaid who were
going hungry — 25 percent of the food insecure patients had insurance.
“It was a big surprise to find that many people who were not
obviously economically challenged,” said Garner. Some families who filled the
prescription had never gone to a food bank before and knew nothing about the
resources they could access.
The doctors learned two important things from the program, said
Garner. “You can’t identify somebody who is food insecure by the information we
traditionally have,” he said. “Many people who need food or would benefit from
additional food aren’t aware that this county is abundantly supplied with free
food resources.”
Garner believes doctors have a unique opportunity to help
families who may not be aware of the social services available to them. So he’s
speaking with other doctors about how to implement the RX for Food program in
their own practices. He also has worked with the Capital Area Food Bank, a
warehouse that supplies food to local food banks, to increase the number of participating
food banks.
“Next year, they will have 13 sites throughout Fairfax County,
which will honor these prescriptions, and we’re out recruiting physicians,”
said Garner.
Having pediatricians screen their patients for food insecurity is
important because it gets families food, said Turner. “We know the effects that
food insecurity can have on children,” she said. “It's important that someone
with that type of influence on a family is really looking at food insecurity
and doing something about it.”
Find out more
To learn more about the program or to start an RX for Food
at your medical practice, go to rxforfood.com or call Burke Pediatrics at
703/978-6061.