WMed's Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine was honored with the Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes 2019 Ann Wend Lipsey Food Security and Justice Award in recognition of their work to launch the food insecurity initiative. Dr. Priscilla Woodhams and Niecia Anjorin, pediatric social worker in the WMed Clinics, accepted the award during the KLF 2019 Community Celebration.
WMed pediatricians are working to reduce instances of food insecurity for patients through a new screening process that connects families to available food resources in Kalamazoo County.
The 18-month pilot project, which involves asking families two simple questions about whether they have enough food, has had a positive impact on patients served by the medical school’s Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine practices, said Dr. Priscilla Woodhams, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
The program’s impact has not gone unnoticed and earlier this year faculty and staff from the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine were honored with the Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes 2019 Ann Wend Lipsey Food Security and Justice Award in recognition of their work to launch the initiative. Dr. Woodhams and Niecia Anjorin, a WMed pediatric social worker, accepted the award during the KLF 2019 Community Celebration.
“Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes and the Kalamazoo County Hunger-Free Coalition are so proud to work with WMed Pediatrics on the Food is Medicine pilot project for our community,” said Jennifer Johnson, executive director of Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes. “WMed Pediatrics was the first to step up and agree to help connect patients, who present as food insecure, with both local and federal anti-hunger programs and resources. This cross-sector partnership is important as both organizations look at ways to improve food access and create a healthier community.”
As part of the food insecurity screening program, parents at WMed’s pediatric and adolescent medicine practices, which are located at the Oakland Drive Campus in Kalamazoo and on Mall Drive in Portage, are asked two questions – whether they have been worried within the last year that food would run out before they had money to buy more, and whether, in that same time frame, they had ever run out of food and didn’t have money to buy more. If parents answer affirmatively to either question, they are asked if they want to be contacted by a social worker with a list of food resources.
The questions are asked via paper form in order not to stress out child patients who might overhear talk of the sensitive subject.
If the parents agree to be contacted, a social worker gathers more information, including the number of adults and children in the house. The social worker determines if the family is eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and gives the family a list of meal and food bank resources in the Kalamazoo community.
The list of resources is compiled by KLF quarterly and includes a list of hot and prepared meals available to community members. Additionally, a representative from the Kalamazoo County Hunger-Free Coalition follows up with a phone call in two to four weeks to make sure the family was able to access the food resources, Anjorin said.
Anjorin said social workers have heard from families who didn’t know where they would get food for dinner that night.
“A lot of times families are appreciative of just knowing what’s out there,” Anjorin said. “Some families just want to know, some families want to get there but might not have transportation.”
Anjorin said WMed social workers help families identify informal supports such as friends and neighbors who might be able to bring them to the food banks or meal sites.
“It’s good to be asking families if they have enough food in the house,” Anjorin said. “A lot of families, the adults are willing to be hungry so that their kids can eat. The opportunity to know if the families need this or not and the opportunity to connect them to what’s available is really valuable.”
Anjorin said it’s valuable for the community to have social workers in the medical school’s primary care clinics to be able to give people access to resources.
“It’s rewarding to know that we are making a difference for folks and that hopefully fewer people will be hungry in Kalamazoo County,” Anjorin said. “We’re so lucky to have so many resources.”
The food insecurity screening project began in 2018 when the Kalamazoo County Hunger-Free Community Coalition, a community organization that works on improving people’s access to healthy food, was looking for a clinic interested in piloting the screening. Since that time, more than 3,200 patients have been screened, Dr. Woodhams said.
The screening bridges the connection between the patients’ families and available resources in the community in a way that hadn’t been done before, Dr. Woodhams said. As part of the project, patients’ families are screened every six months.
Woodhams said the results of the first round of screenings, which were conducted in 2018, were alarming. About 60 percent of patients had positive screens the first day, meaning up to 30 patients said they were worried about running out of food. Since the project’s inception, about 12 percent of families at the pediatric and adolescent medicine practices – about 400 total – have been identified as food insecure, according to data collected in the pilot project.
“What was interesting is we had a significant percentage that were on private insurance but were struggling to feed their children,” Dr. Woodhams said. “It was significant enough that when we made recommendations to other clinics in Kalamazoo that wanted to implement this that we recommended they screen all patients.”
Data collected from the project show it is making a difference. Dr. Woodhams said the incidents of WMed patients having food insecurity has decreased thanks to the screenings. She said she personally has heard from families who said it made a difference.
“Anecdotally, parents have said thank you so much for helping. This made a big difference in our family,” Dr. Woodhams said. “‘I had a parent directly look me in the eye and say thank you so much.”
Dr. Woodhams said she hopes to see the screening implemented in emergency rooms and urgent care facilities, places where at-risk families often go for care who often have not identified a primary care physician. She said she also hopes to see the screening implemented in all WMed practices.