Akron Children's Hospital pairs gardening and food pantry with visits for food-insecure patients
A patient visiting a dietitian at Akron Children’s Hospital is brought down to a garden bustling with bees, vegetables and herbs. There, the dietitian teaches the patient and their family about nutrition and educates them on the uses of different vegetables easily grown in Ohio.
Once the crops are ready for harvest, they’re brought to a food pantry located at the hospital where patients experiencing food insecurity can access them as needed.
That’s the vision for Akron Children’s Hospital’s Food Farmacy and education and wellness garden launched during a ceremony Tuesday.
“Nothing quite gets a child engaged like being able to touch, smell and see and kind of speak into that space,” said Mike Folino, the hospital’s director of support services. “It’s our job to get these kids comfortable and parents comfortable with vegetables, produce, gardening.”
Folino hopes to start bringing patients down to the garden by the end of the summer. The plan is for the garden to be used for educational purposes throughout future summers and then have the harvest move into the stores of the Food Farmacy.
The Food Farmacy pilot program is funded through an Ohio Department of Medicaid grant to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank secured by state Rep. Emilia Sykes. The grant aims to support food-insecure patients with chronic diseases and their families who live in Summit County.
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“It’s great that we have a food bank. They are very accessible,” Sykes said after the ceremony. “But when you’re teaching someone and educating them about their diet and their lifestyle and then forcing them to go to another building or another place, then they just give up. This makes it easy and helps people make those changes.”
That desire for accessibility is why — once the Food Farmacy opens later this fall — it will be located on the ground floor of the Considine Professional Building at 215 W. Bowery St. The location is designed so families can quickly pull through the driveway in front of the building or come to the bus stop across the street when getting food.
“Akron Children’s and our providers actually do come in contact with families every day who are really struggling with food insecurity and whose children have chronic health issues,” said Lisa Aurilio, the hospital’s chief operating officer.
“We’re so happy to be able to launch the Food Farmacy to actually have a solution on site so that we can address the problem directly,” she added. “Now, we can say, ‘Just go downstairs in the elevator, and we’ll get you the food that you need.’”
Currently, the garden, which is funded by the hospital, looks a bit barren as the crops were planted in late June and early July, an inopportune time to start a garden. Already, though, there are ripe tomatoes hanging off the vines and radishes peeking out of the soil. Folino hopes that next year, when the garden gets an earlier start, it will be full and lively.
Both the garden and food pantry are meant for patient families and employees who need access to food, said Bernett Williams, the hospital’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and vice president for community initiatives.
“Our patient families are diverse, and we will make every effort to include food in our pantry that is reflective of the various communities we serve,” Williams said during the ceremony. “We want our families not only to feel welcome by knowing that they can come to the food bank, but to be encouraged that the Food Farmacy was developed with them in mind.”
During the program’s first phase, the pantries will provide food to patients who answer yes to one of the two questions on a screening tool. The questions ask if the person has been worried about their ability to buy food in the past 12 months or if they ran out of food and didn’t have money to buy more in the past 12 months.
Patients who are identified as experiencing food insecurity will then be screened for income eligibility. A patient’s income must fall below the threshold for their household size to be eligible for federally and state-funded food programs.
In Summit County, 12.5% of the population is food insecure, according to hunger relief organization Feeding America, and more than 18% of children in the county are food insecure.
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The food, provided by the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, consists primarily of non-perishable items, although other items will be offered as available. Once a patient has accessed services through a pantry, they are able to return as often as they need.
“It was one of those things where I can’t believe we didn’t think about doing this sooner,” Dan Flowers, president and chief executive officer of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, said after the ceremony.
“When people come in, doctors will be able to essentially write a prescription for people to go to the food pantry and get the food that they need, and I think that’s kind of a neat thing.”
The Akron Children’s Hospital food pantry is the last of three to launch at area hospitals this year through the pilot program.
Cleveland Clinic Akron General opened its food pantry in late June, and Summa Health opened its in mid-July.
Cleveland Clinic Akron General
Akron General’s food pantry was the first to open through the pilot program and serves patients of the hospital’s Center for Family Medicine located on the second floor of 1 Akron General Ave.
The pantry is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with an hour-long break at noon Monday through Friday.
Since the food pantry opened in late June, it has served around 24 families, or about 60 people, Cleveland Clinic Akron General spokeswoman Beth Hertz said.
Summa Health
Summa Health opened its food pantry on July 11, which serves patients of the hospital’s Family Medicine Center.
The pantry, located on the third floor of 55 Arch St., is open to eligible patients from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Patients do not need to be at an appointment at the center to receive food.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Children's Hospital launches education garden and food pantry
