Washington County Hospital and Clinics has taken a very helpful step for patients. They have launched an initiative where they are offering a food assistance program for patients. Keeping the nutrition in mind they have arranged “Nourish Boxes,“ with enough to feed a person for roughly a week, funded by the hospital foundation, the nonprofit associated with the institution.
WCHC Diabetes Educator Amy Martin said, “To not have food can cause some real health concerns for (people with) too-low blood sugar,” Martin added. “It’s got the food groups included in it, enough to nourish them and be a good compromise. Sometimes, for some people, it’s not about eating the right things, it’s about eating at all.”
The program was inspired by diabetic patients’ needs. “We’re going to have a box at each of our clinics as well as the inpatient side and the emergency room,” she said. “If staff is identifying that someone is having an issue or is identifying that they don’t have enough food, then we can provide them a box.”
Though food banks are available, “said some people were unwilling or unable to use them.
“Many patients don’t have transportation to get there, or, often, it’s embarrassing, they don’t want to tell somebody that they don’t have food,” she said. “We wanted to be able to help them.”
As reported by Southeast Iowa Union, “Martin said the hospital would take a report back to its foundation next year on the program’s use and impact. That data will decide whether funding for the food boxes continues, and how much money it will get if it does.
The food is purchased from a rotation of grocery stores in the Washington area.”
“Our goal is to keep the cost of those boxes to about $35 a box,” Martin said. “So we purchased food for the first 25 boxes, and will get more when we need more, I just don’t have the space in my office to store any more.”
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