Vibrant Health is excited to announce that we have been selected as a pilot in a partnership between FoodConnect and mRelief. Both organizations are recent recipients of grant funding from GreenLight Fund to address food insecurity in Kansas City.
“Social factors like food security are key to supporting community members’ overall health and prosperity,” said Andrea Perdomo Morales, Chief Health Equity Officer at Vibrant Health.
At Vibrant Health, we work to address the needs of our patients in the clinic, but also monitor other social determinants of health that affect the health of our patients outside the clinic. Food security, or regular access to healthy food, is a significant factor in a person’s overall health.
Food Connect utilizes technology and logistics expertise to bridge community food system gaps, partnering with local food and hunger organizations to deliver food affordably and design food programs that improve health outcomes. Through FoodConnect, Vibrant Health’s population health team will identify 20 patient families with uncontrolled diabetes and have indicated that food is a needed resource. FoodConnect will help ensure healthy, culturally appropriate food is delivered to each family on a regular basis and Vibrant Health will track health outcomes throughout the program.
Vibrant Health will also partner with mRelief in a wider effort to help more patients and community members get access to SNAP benefits. Vibrant Health will include QR codes in all our waiting rooms as a resource to help our patients determine their eligibility for SNAP benefits. MRelief simplifies the SNAP enrollment process and offers mobile-friendly applications, providing eligibility screening and offering application guidance. According to mRelief, $8.4 million in SNAP benefits go unclaimed each year in Kansas City.
“We are always eager to form innovative partnerships that allow us to meet the needs of our patients, inside and outside the clinic. Regular access to healthy food is a critical component to overall good health and we look forward to working together with Food Connect, mRelief and Greenlight to address this important issue”, said Patrick Sallee, President & CEO of Vibrant Health.
